


Bleed Through 2023

by MamaBear7319



Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [23]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 2014 timeline, Gen, Iron Dad, Multiverse, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 29,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27176980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaBear7319/pseuds/MamaBear7319
Summary: The year is 2023.  Strange had warned them that they may experience another bleed through event, he had just been really sparse on details.Peter eyes darted across the landscape on the other side of the window. It was an open field that led up to the landing pad. The Hudson River was just on the other side of a small hill. There was nothing, yet everything in him said there was something. "I don't know." He tapped the panel to open the door and stepped out onto the patio. Triggering the Iron Spider he started running towards the field as the first tear started opening.
Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934734
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	1. Bleed Through

**Author's Note:**

> We’re skipping ahead a couple years to 2023. I have the beginnings of a story that may fill in the gap but it’s not gelling in my head yet. So...for now...time skip...

Laughter could be heard from the common area of the compound. It had been a while since this team in particular had been together. Tony had all but retired to the lake house and only worked on pet projects that he found interesting. Clint had officially retired...again, but it seemed to be sticking this time. Rhodey kept saying he was retired but every time the military called he answered. Nat and Steve had both transitioned into more of a liaison role between SHIELD and the various superhero teams. Sam and Bucky were still active but tended to do more of the small team incursions. Scott and Hope led the west coast team. Wanda worked mainly with Professor Xavier and his teams. And, wherever Wanda went, Vision followed. Peter was the unifying figure since his team included members from a couple different teams. When he went on a mission it was almost always with his team. If it required a little more fire power they could pull from any of their options...which were extensive at this point.

"Why isn't Stephen here? He's the one that suggested this whole thing." Clint leaned over the counter and grabbed a piece of pizza, bow and quiver leaning unobtrusively against the counter.

Steve looked up from his tablet. "He's checking in with T'Challa. He wants to make sure they're prepared." For the life of him he had no idea what they were supposed to be prepared for. All Stephen could tell them was that the timeline that had caused the 'Bleed Through' event five years ago had another spike in activity today. He glanced over at Natasha and smiled. Whatever was coming, he was just glad she was here.

The thought was interrupted by the familiar squeal from Morgan as she was being chased into the common area by Nathaniel. Barton's youngest was a few years older than her but Morgan acted way older than her young age of almost five. It made Steve wonder what Tony was like as a child since Peter always seemed way older than he actually was as well.

Pepper strode calmly into the room, hair pulled back into a pony tail. Stephen was so sparse on details there had been a lot of discussion as to if it should just be the team at the compound. The memory of the last bleed through event was still very clear in their minds, despite the length of time since it happened. Tony and Peter in particular wanted their family close by so the rest of them followed suit. It ended up making for an enjoyable gathering.

Bucky and Sam walked in, both carrying weapons, albeit not their standard issue. Cassie, Cooper, and Lila followed them into the room carrying similar weapons.

"How was the battle?" Clint called from the kitchen.

"Team Falcon was victorious." Sam put his nerf gun down on the table next to Steve, ignoring the glare from Bucky. "Although Lila has amazing aim. I've got a couple bruises on my arm."

"That's my girl." Clint grinned at Laura who just shook her head and followed Pepper to make sure the two youngest weren't getting into too much trouble.

Sam looked around the room. "Are Peter and Tony planning to join us anytime soon?"

MJ looked up from her book, feet tucked under her. "They're still in ops."

Bucky frowned. "They haven't heard from Johnny and Wyatt yet?" He didn't wait for MJ's response, he headed down the hall towards the large room that had always served the purpose of their operational command center. He stopped at the entrance and studied the scene in front of him. Tony was standing behind Peter with his arms crossed looking over his shoulder at a screen. Peter had a headset on and a frown on his face. Bucky crossed the room to stand next to Tony and looked down at the screen they were both studying. He quickly read through the information on the screen.

Not looking up, Peter pointed at a dot on the screen. "They're still out of range." Reed had taken their team up in a prototype vehicle to check out some reading they were receiving past the moon. Tony and Reed had been working on the communications aspect but they still hadn't come up with anything that could get a signal at certain times. It frustrated Tony to no end. Reed was just happy they got the shielding working correctly.

Peter tore his eyes away from the screen and looked over at Bucky. "When they got up there the signal ended up being further out than we thought." He frowned and looked back at the screen. "They're on the other side of the moon which is why they're out of range."

All three of them heard the pounding of little feet before Morgan came into view. "Peter, come play with me!"

Tony leaned down and scooped Morgan up before she launched herself at Peter. "Maguna, you have got to give your brother a break."

Morgan frowned at her dad. "You and Peter have been in here forever."

Peter smiled at the heavy emphasis Morgan placed on the word forever. Before he could respond, Bucky leaned over and poked Morgan. "Come on Morgan, I'll show you some moves you can use on Nathaniel."

Peter and Tony watched Bucky and Morgan disappear through the door of the command center. Tony tapped Peter on the shoulder. "There's nothing you can do. FRIDAY will let us know when they're back in range."

Peter pulled the headphones off and looked at his dad. He knew he was right but he hated not knowing what was going on with two members of his team. He sighed and threw the headphones down on the desk and pushed himself up. "You know Bucky is probably teaching her some kind of assassin trick that she's going to end up using on one of us, right?"

"Yeah, we'll get Nat to debrief her. It'll be fine." Tony pushed Peter out of the command center. He knew how worried Peter was about Wyatt and Johnny but it was more than that. Peter had been on edge for the last 24 hours which meant Tony had been on edge for 24 hours.

Walking into the common area, Tony leaned against the bar next to Rhodey and watched Peter kiss MJ on the head and hop over the back of the couch to sit next to her. Satisfied Peter was distracted for now he turned his attention to Rhodey. "You've tested the interface and you feel comfortable using it?"

Rhodey stared at his friend. "Seriously? You think I didn't test drive the War Machine interface when Strange said he thought there was some kind of battle brewing? I mean Steve is back in his Captain America get up. I haven't seen that in ages."

"I just want to make sure the interface is working and you can trigger the armor." Tony paused and took a sip of water, "In case Strange is right and something does happens."

Rhodey smirked in response. "You mean the interface that took you and Peter five years to come up with? You know, I thought you could do better than that. Shuri figured it out years ago."

"Shuri has the benefit of vibranium...both in the suits as well as in T'Challa's physiology. Plus, you've said you're retiring at least twenty times over the last five years. Why would I design something you'll never use."

Rhodey laughed at how defensive Tony was getting. He was such an easy target. He and Peter both always reacted the same way which made it fun to give them a hard time. "I'm just messing with you. The interface is fine. Works great."

Tony glared at Rhodey. "Has anyone heard from Stephen yet."

Steve answered from his position next to Natasha. "No. And FRIDAY hasn't picked up any abnormal readings." They both looked over when they heard "Checkmate."

Tony sighed. "Tic Tac, how many times has she beaten you?"

Scott frowned at the chessboard. "Six." He glanced over at Hope who was smirking at him.

"You're not going to win. You never win." Hope sat back and crossed her arms, waiting for Scott to decide he was tired of getting beat at Chess.

Scott wrinkled his nose and started resetting the board. "I'm just pulling her into a false sense of security."

Tony shook his head and started to retort when he noticed Peter stand up and walk over to the large glass doors. He crossed the room to stand next to Peter. Glancing down at Peter's arms and saw the fine hairs standing up. "Pete, what is it?"

Peter eyes darted across the landscape on the other side of the window. It was an open field that led up to the landing pad. The Hudson River was just on the other side of a small hill. There was nothing, yet everything in him said there was something. "I don't know." He tapped the panel to open the door and stepped out onto the patio. Triggering the Iron Spider he started running towards the field as the first tear started opening.


	2. Tears In Reality

The juxtaposition between the cloudless, brilliant blue sky and the jagged tears that revealed a smoke filled, debris laden landscape was unsettling. Tony landed next to Peter and scanned the three tears. He couldn't make much out past the utter destruction laid out in front of them.

"What the hell are those things." Clint fired off an arrow at a creature bounding across the open field. He realized as the creature was falling that it had way more friends than he could take on himself.

Tony and Peter spun around, following the sound of Clint's voice and the thrip of arrows hitting the targets. Cap's shield flew in front of them, obscuring their view. Finally getting a clear look at what Clint was shooting at, Tony froze. "FRIDAY, enact security protocols. Tell Pepper to get everyone to the lower levels." Giant dog like creatures were erupting from a tear that had opened right next to the building. He could see mangled steel and concrete. Whatever had happened had been catastrophic.

Peter flung a web grenade towards a charging creature. Tangling up the creatures' arms and legs, it came skidding to a stop in front of Peter. He fired another web grenade as the creature bared its teeth and snarled. A repulsor blast hit the creature from behind him.

"Yeah, were not playing nice with these things. You need to find a way to go high." Tony fired off another repulsor blast at the creatures barreling across the field.

Peter quickly scanned the area. Steve and Nat were both engaging. Clint was going to have to start recycling arrows soon. Hope buzzed passed him, firing at one of the creatures. "Hey, Scott. Go big." Peter waited for Scott to grow, then fired a web, swinging upward until he landed on Scott's shoulder. "Where are Bucky and Sam?" Karen lit up two transponder beacons on his HUD. "Bucky, why are you still in the building?" Firepower was exactly what they needed right now. He looked down as Scott stomped on one of the creatures.

Bucky's com channel opened. "There's a rip inside. We could use some help!" The sound of automatic weapons fire echoed. Peter tamped the panic back as he saw Vision phase through the wall of the compound. Wanda wasn't quite as neat. She simply blew a hole in the side of the wall and followed. He needed to follow them, to make sure everyone on the inside was ok.

Peter dove off Scott's shoulder, tucking into a roll as he hit the ground. Landing in a crouch his eyes focused on a tear in his field of vision. He saw a broken shield. A shield he didn't think was possible to break. Without taking his eyes off of the shield he flung his arm to the side, landing a taser web on one of the creatures launching itself at him. He forced himself to pull his attention back to the battle at hand. Taser webs seemed to be working.

He rose and was sprinting towards the building when a tear opened above him and debris fell from the sky. Diving out of the way, he rolled onto his back and shot webs at the debris, yanking it out of the way. All he could see was an impossibly large ship looming over him. An articulated ship-like creature slithered into Peter's view, passing in front of the larger ship. He had seen video from the Battle of New York so he knew what it was. It was almost fascinating to watch until it did the unimaginable.

"Dad...Rhodey...". Peter scrambled back as the Leviathan slithered through the tear. "I don't have enough fire power for this...". A missile sailed over him, hitting the armor plating on its side and leaving a smoldering hole. Rhodey landed next to him fired again, hitting fleshy surface now exposed. Peter let out the breath he had been holding as the Leviathan crashed to the ground. Then he realized the Leviathan wasn't alone.

Rhodey opened fire on the Chitauri streaming off the downed Leviathan. Peter flipped to his feet and ran towards the ship creature. Running up it's tail he fired web grenades off the sides, tangling up as many Chitauri as he could. He saw one of the tears ahead of him as he looked around, checking down on targets. He froze when he saw himself. He looked so much younger. Then he remembered the other Peter had lost five years. That would make the other him sixteen. The curious part of his brain wanted to know what differences there were between them. A lot had happened in the last five years that had shaped who Peter had become. A lot that the other Peter hadn't experienced. But then again, he hadn't died on an alien planet like the other Peter had. He smiled when he saw his dad...the other Tony...come into view. Peter fired a web grenade at a group of Chitauri on the side of the Leviathan as he watched other Tony pull other Peter into a hug. Somethings never change. He ducked as his Spidey sense triggered. Flipping into a crouch he tore his eyes from other Peter and focused on the creature that had landed on the back of the Leviathan. Six legs...although maybe some of them were arms...all with claws. The dog like creatures that had been come through first were still here.

He flipped backwards and fired off a series of webs. He expected them to at least slow down the creature but they barely made a dent. He triggered the waldos to brace himself and kicked the creature with both feet. It was enough force to push the creature back but not before it lashed out with one of its claws to rake across his leg. A familiar orange portal opened behInd the creature and it disappeared. Dr. Strange appeared a moment later in its place.

"Are you ok?" Dr. Strange fired bolts of red to the side that caused two Chitauri to disintegrate.

Peter peered over the side. That was one he hadn't seen before. "Armor held. Where have you been?"

"Making sure Wakanda didn't end up here." Strange levitated up and dropped to the ground.

"I don't know, I think we could use the help right now." Peter fired a taser web as he landed next to Strange. "There's one of these tears inside the building."

Stephen looked over at him. Getting Peter off the battlefield would be a good thing. "Where?" He could probably clear him a path.

Peter checked his HUD. "Labs on the main floor." He glanced up at the tear that had just formed. Another Leviathan was coming through. This was not good. "You should have at least brought Okoye with you." He watched as Dr. Strange fired another of the red bolts at the Leviathan. It managed to damage the armor but the creature turned to hide its vulnerable soft spot.

Stephen looked over at Peter. "Try to make it to the building. I'll work on the Leviathan." He watched Peter run towards the building, taking down Chitauri and Outriders as he went. He turned his focus back to the Leviathan and threw a series of energy blasts at it. He was starting to think Peter was correct when he said he should brought assistance. The number of creatures making it through the tears far surpassed what he had assumed.

Peter ran towards the main building. He could at least track Bucky, Sam, Vision, and Wanda. He was hopeful that everybody was together and not spread out and as a result undefended. Another tear opened and he turned his head to see what new terror would spill from this one.

He hadn't been able to hear much from the other side. He wasn't sure if it was due to the noise from the battle on their side or if noise just didn't transmit well. These words, however, rang clearly.

"And I...am Iron Man."

"No!" Peter screamed. He felt it more than understood it. His knees buckled beneath him as he dropped to the ground. What had just happened, not in his reality, but the other, had paralyzed him. Until he heard the other scream.

"Daddy!"


	3. Overwhelming

Tony heard Peter's scream followed by Mogan's and it seemed like his world went silent. A Leviathan fell out of the sky as the tear it had been coming through closed. Tony fired his repulsor at it as he scanned the battlefield for both of his kids. One kid whom he had learned a long time ago he couldn't keep off the battlefield, and the other he had hoped would never see a battlefield. He found Peter first. On the opposite side of the field. He didn't think he was hurt, FRIDAY wasn't reporting any injuries. But he was on his knees. Until he wasn't. Tony followed Peter's trajectory and found Morgan. He kicked in the thrusters, but he knew he couldn't get there in time. There were Chitauri everywhere. Peter on the other hand...Tony had forgotten how fast he could run. Peter didn't run at full speed often and he was closer than the rest of them to Morgan.

Peter fired taser grenades at all of the targets that were lit up in his HUD. He didn't bother to check to see which ones actually landed. His only concern was Morgan. "Karen, get ready to implement Lock-Down Protocol. Unlock only on mine, Pepper's, or dad's order."

"Affirmative Peter."

Peter tapped the nanohousing on his web shooter and retracted the suit as he slid in front of Morgan. In a fluid motion he slapped his watch on Morgan's tiny wrist. "Deploy suit." The Iron Spider formed around Morgan. That was the great thing about nanotech. They could adapt to any size or shape. "Morgan, I've got you." He wrapped his arms around her.

"Peter...Daddy!" The Iron Spider buried its head against Peter's neck.

"Morgan, look at the HUD. I know you know how to use it. Dad is fine." Peter formed his remaining web shooter, the one that formed from the silver band on his wrist, and set it for taser webs. His Spidey sense triggered on something behind him so he fired a web over his head knowing he would at least slow down whatever was attacking from behind.

"Queens! Heads up!"

Peter heard the familiar sound of the shield flying through the air. He knew what Steve intended. He snatched it out of the air and held it with both hands over his head, deflecting the blow from one of the creatures. A moment later a repulsor blast exploded over his head and he looked up. Instead of the familiar red and gold, Pepper's blue and silver Rescue armor landed behind Morgan.

Pepper slid the mask back and looked at Peter and Morgan. "Morgan, honey, we need to get back in the building. All of the monsters are gone." She glanced over at Peter as Morgan let go of his neck. "MJ is safe. No one is seriously hurt." Morgan wrapped her arms around Pepper's neck. Pepper fired another repulsor blast at one of the creatures headed towards the group. "We need to get back to the building." She stood up, holding on to Morgan. "Peter, you can't stay out here."

Peter shook his head. "I can't leave dad." He looked at Pepper. "You don't understand. I can't leave him." Peter stood up and grasped the braces of the shield. "Keep her in the suit. Get her out of here." He watched Pepper wrestle with the idea of leaving him on the battlefield and quickly come to the conclusion she wasn't winning.

"Peter!" Pepper knew from years of dealing with stubborn superhero's that Peter wasn't following her. It didn't mean she wasn't just as mad at him as she usually was with Tony when he pulled something like this. She felt the armor absorb an energy blast from one of the Chitauri weapons and knew she had to get Morgan to safety. She picked her up and blasted up and headed back to what was hopefully the safety of the compound building.

Peter knew somewhere in his brain that staying out on the battlefield without a suit was stupid but the overwhelming panic he felt about his dad's safety over rode every other thought. He turned around and fired taser webs at a group of Chitauri. Without Karen and his HUD he went through the slow process of checking down on everyone's locations. He saw his dad flying in his direction only to have a Leviathan swerve into his path. Peter threw the shield knowing it would hit its target. There were so many creatures swarming, his Spidey sense was firing on everything. He was so focused on the fight in front of him that he missed the creature launching toward him from behind. He felt the claws scrape across his back and he bit back a cry of pain. Grabbing the shield as it rebounded into his hands, he swung around and hit the creature with it.

He looked around for his next target, and unfortunately he saw way too many of them. What he didn't see were the tears that had been there previously. What had happened on the other side must have severed the connection. That meant at least they only had to worry about the creatures that were already here. He looked around for his dad and felt panic rise in his chest when he couldn't find him.

He saw Steve propel Nat into the air to allow her to land on the back of a Leviathan. Two repulsor blasts erupted from the other side of the creature, knocking armor plating off its side. He threw the shield and watched it land in the creature, embedded in the fleshy surface that had been exposed by the repulsor blasts. Natasha slid down the side of the creature, landing on the shield and slapped an explosive disk on the creature and pulled the shield out, using it to slide down the creature to join Steve on the ground.

The small explosion was enough to take the creature down. They may look formidable but once you got through the armor it seemed like they were easy to disable. Peter saw another repulsor blast and a hint of red on the other side of the Leviathan he breathed another sigh of relief but the constant and almost painful tingle his Spidey sense was giving him telling him he was in danger meant the relief was short lived. He jumped up and landed on top of the debris that had come through one of the previous tears. He could feel blood dripping down his back as he looked for a path that would take him closer to his dad. That's all he cared about right now, he needed to make sure he was ok. The thought of what he had felt before almost paralyzed him again but he forced himself to focus on the battle at hand. The Chitauri and dog like creatures with claws were still everywhere. The Chitauri seemed almost manic in their attacks.

One of the Chitauri landed next to him on the pile of debris. He jumped to avoid the initial blast from the energy weapon. Between the claws and the energy weapons that were being fired he was running out of safe places to land. He leveled a kick at the Chitauri's midsection which resulted in the alien flying off the debris pile and hitting two of the creatures when it landed. He quickly looked around again for his dad. Peter could tell he was trying to get to Peter but he was having to go through a lot of Chitauri.

Peter felt his Spidey sense trigger moments before he felt himself being tackled to the ground. There were way too many of them converging on his position. All he could really do at this point was make contact with as many as he could. The sky that had been so blue and clear when this started was starting to become marred by smoke and dust. A Chitauri loomed over him, energy weapon pointed down. Grabbing the barrel he pulled it up, then he felt the air around change, kind of like it felt during a lightning storm. His Spidey sense relaxed as the Chitauri and creatures fell to the ground. He looked around expecting to see his Dad. Instead, standing around him where three people he never expected to see in person. Two that hadn't been seen in eight years, and one that he was pretty sure had last been seen attacking New York.


	4. Long Story

Steve caught his shield and looked in stunned disbelief as lighting coursed through most of the Chitauri and other creatures the tears had deposited in their world. "Is that Thor?"

Natasha followed his line of sight. "I don't remember him being able to do that before. Would have come in handy with Ultron."

"Or with Loki...speaking of..." Steve frowned as he caught sight of a tall figure that looked remarkably a lot like he remembered Loki looking. He started to move in their direction when a Leviathan landed in front of them only to be jerked back and thrown across the field. "Hulk?" Steve caught sight of a large green hand holding the end of the Leviathan. He glanced down at Natasha, gauging her reaction.

"It's been eight years Steve. I'm good." She looked around for the rest of the team. She caught sight of Scott stepping on the Leviathan that Hulk had thrown before shrinking down and leaning on Hope for support. He had just spent a long time in his giant form, probably too much time. Rhodey was finishing off a couple of the Chitauri, as was Stephen. Clint, perfectly happy letting Thor and Hulk take act as the relief team, was checking to make sure the ones that were down would stay down.

Tony landed between Loki and Peter, repulsors ready. He had watched Loki defend Peter after Thor's initial blast had taken down half of the remaining Chitauri and whatever the other creatures were. That was the only reason he hadn't blasted him from across the field. Not taking his eyes off Loki he felt Peter move to stand next to him.

Loki eyed Stark and the boy. As injured as he was, he had watched the boy use the device on his wrist to trap several Chitauri and land an impressive blow on one of them. And judging from the protective stance Stark had taken he assumed the boy meant something to him. It was a stance he had seen Frigga take when she thought that one of her sons were threatened. He had known coming to Earth was a risk to himself personally but when Thor had said he thought Loki could be more, he had found himself wanting to believe him. "Stark, I am not here to harm you or the boy."

Tony heard the words coming out of Loki's mouth but they didn't convince him to relax his guard. The last time Loki was here he had killed hundreds of people and had destroyed a good portion of Manhattan. "Yeah, I'm not quite ready to take you at your word." He looked over as Nat and Steve joined them. Thor landed at Loki's side a moment later.

"Why are there Chitauri on Earth?" Thor looked around at the battlefield littered with debris and bodies of fallen Chitauri and Outriders.

"Long story. Why are you and Reindeer Games on Earth and where did you find Hulk?" Tony lowered both arms and retracted his helmet.

"Long story." Thor put a hand on Loki's shoulder. "Loki will not cause any trouble. You have my word."

Loki bit back the retort that was trying to fall out of his mouth. He was 100% sure that saying that his brother didn't speak for him would have been the wrong thing to say. For now he was content to play the dutiful younger brother. It was really his only option. He looked over at the boy. "Your wounds should be tended to. Outrider's claws can be especially savage."

Tony looked over at Peter. Without Karen or his watch, Tony had no way of knowing how hurt Peter was. He looked fine until he caught sight of a piece of his t-shirt, stained with what looked to be blood, flopped over his shoulder. Reaching out, he put his armored hand on Peter's shoulder and twisted him around. His stomach dropped when he saw the ugly slashes across Peter's back. "MedBay, now." He looked over at Steve and Nat and receiving a nod that Steve would work out whatever was going on, he pushed Peter towards the building.

Steve watched until he was sure Peter didn't need more help than just Tony before turning back to Thor. "Not that we're not happy to see you and incredibly thankful for the help, but why are you here?"

Thor shifted his attention from watching Tony leave with the boy back to Rogers. He smiled at Natasha. It was good to see them both again. It had been too long. "We we're headed this way when Heimdall saw the Chitauri attacking. He was able to use the Bifrost to bring us here."

Steve frowned. "You were already on your way here?"

Natasha crossed her arms, eyes locked on Loki. "The signal we picked up. The one Johnny and Wyatt went to investigate. Was that you?"

Thor smiled. "We were able to communicate with their friend Reed. He mentioned someone named Johnny, so yes...whatever signal you picked up would have come from our ship."

"Ship?" Natasha questioned, her eyes remaining on Loki. She didn't trust him but so far he seemed harmless. She caught the Hulk out of the corner of her eye, headed their way. Stephen appeared at her side, interested in their new friends.

Thor's face fell, "A ship full of Asgard refugees. Our home-world has fallen. We were hoping we might find refuge on Earth."

"Ragnarok?" Stephen pursed his lips and thought through the implications of what that meant.

xxxxxxxxxx

MJ knelt down in front of Peter. "Hey! So I was thinking. I know I've said I didn't want one, but I've changed my mind. I'm thinking maybe black or a really dark navy. With a dark purple spider."

Peter was currently sitting in a chair backwards with his chin resting on the back. It was the only position he could really get in that would allow Dr. Cho access to his back. He had already been through the painful process of cleaning the wounds, now he had to deal with the even worse part. Peter grimaced and tried to focus on MJ while Dr. Cho started stitching the gashes on his back. "MJ, what are you talking about?"

"I want a suit. Maybe thrusters. Definitely web shooters since I know I can use them. Oh, and also some weaponry like Rhodey." MJ grinned at the look on Peter's face.

"You don't need a suit." Peter grimaced again. He hated getting stitches. "You're just freaked out and trying to distract me."

"I'm totally freaked out but I've been thinking about this for a while. There's been a couple times when it would have come in handy. It solves the whole 'kidnapping' issue." MJ highly embellished the air quotes around 'kidnapping'. Pepper and Tony had both made sure she understood that it was a real threat. The amount of security she had was ridiculous. She reached out and grabbed both of his hands and squeezed when he grimaced again.

"You don't need a suit." Peter forced a smile. He was just relieved she was ok. He had insisted on checking on her before agreeing to allow Dr Cho to clean his back. His dad had only allowed it because MJ had been in MedBay already. Pepper had been right, no one had been seriously injured, although Bucky had been hit with one of the Chitauri weapons. Years of dealing with Peter and his tendency to downplay injuries meant MJ also knew how to convince the rest of them to at least get checked out. So, Peter had found her in MedBay making sure Bucky got his shoulder looked at by the doctors.

Dr. Cho watched Peter turn his head and knew he was trying to see if he could tell how much more he would have to endure. "Peter, I'm sorry. This is going to take a while. These are some pretty big wounds."

Peter growled in response to one of the stitches pulling on his completely raw back and pulled his hands out of MJ's hands. He was worried he was going to unconsciously squeeze too hard. Setting his jaw he closed his eyes and tried to imagine away the pain. He felt cool metal brush against his hands and reopened his eyes. Bucky had squatted down in front of him. He could see he blackened area where his arm had been hit.

"Hey kid. You and Tony are going to have to make me a new arm anyway so you might as well get some use out of this one." Bucky grinned as Peter wrapped his hands around the forearm of his metal arm. He launched into a recount of the battle inside the compound, completely aware of the smile on MJ and Dr. Cho's face. Bucky knew first hand what it was like to have to deal with pain without the benefit of painkillers. He also had the ability to distract Peter as well as give him an outlet for the pain. So, this was just something they did when Peter was hurt.

MJ leaned against the wall, content to watch. She glanced into the hallway and saw Tony pacing. She wasn't sure she had ever seen him like this before. It was a horrifying mixture of fear and anger. Natasha strode past him, giving MJ a reassuring smile as she passed her before settling into a chair next to Dr. Cho. She knew how much Peter was hurting, the dents he was making in Bucky's arm were visual evidence. Picking up suture needle, she started working on one of the gashes, commenting periodically on Bucky's retelling of the events of the last hour.


	5. Conversations

Peter carefully tried to slide into the loose t-shirt. He smiled when he felt MJ gently tug the fabric over his head and over the white bandages that plastered his back. "Thanks." He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her. "Are you sure you're ok?"

MJ sighed and rested her head against his forehead. It was the first time since the tears opened that they had been in a room without a million other people. "I'm sure. I wasn't joking about the suit though. I didn't like feeling helpless." She pulled her head back and looked at Peter. "What happened?"

Peter almost laughed. "Which part? The fact that we just experienced something that shouldn't be possible? The vicious Space Dogs? Thor and Hulk being back? The fact that Loki is now apparently a good guy?"

MJ frowned and narrowed her eyes. She always knew when he was avoiding something. "Morgan."

Peter stiffened. His dad had drawn the line when Peter had said he wanted to check on Morgan before getting stitched up. FRIDAY had confirmed that Morgan and Pepper were both fine and were currently in the living room on their floor which is why he had given in. He needed to talk to her and make sure she was ok and that she understood. The problem was, he wasn't sure he understood. "I don't know if I know how to explain it."

MJ nodded. "Ok. You know you're going to have to talk to your dad too. I'm not sure I've ever seen him like this."

Peter's brow wrinkled as he thought through the implication of talking to his dad. He had been content in the knowledge that his dad was alive. Being inside the compound meant FRIDAY could let him know where his dad was at all times. When he was being stitched up he knew his dad had been pacing in the hall. Afterwards Peter had distracted himself and focused on MJ. As long as he knew his dad was alive he was more than ok with delaying the impending conversation as long as possible. If they didn't talk about it, everything bubbling below the surface, all of the old insecurities, stayed conveniently out of range. "Do we know what's going on with Thor yet?"

MJ shook her head. Of course Peter was going to deflect and not answer the question. "Not much. I think Nat left Steve to deal with it so she could help Dr. Cho stitch you up. All she said was that Asgard had fallen and that the signal Wyatt and Johnny went to check out with Reed was the Asgard ship."

Peter let out a sigh. "At least maybe that means Wyatt and Johnny are ok." He unconsciously rubbed his left wrist. "Have you seen my watch?"

MJ shook her head. "Do you think Morgan still has it?"

"FRIDAY, where's my watch?"

"Peter, Morgan is still wearing your watch." After a moment of hesitation, the AI continued. "The Iron Spider is still deployed."

Peter looked over at MJ. There was no reason the Iron Spider should still be deployed. "FRIDAY, where's dad?"

"In the large bay outside the first floor labs. I believe he is inspecting the damage."

Peter fought back a snicker. He knew his dad was avoiding things just as much as he was. There was no reason his dad would need to 'inspect the damage'. But at least that meant he wasn't upstairs with Morgan and Pepper.

xxxxxxxxxx

Tony looked at the completely destroyed lab. It probably needed to be upgraded anyway. He didn't think Peter used these labs when he was at the compound. He'd have to check with him and see if he just wanted to redesign the whole floor. It would give Tony a project to work on. "FRIDAY, where's Peter now?"

"Peter is attempting to retrieve the Iron Spider."

Tony thought he had detected a bit of aggravation in FRIDAY's tone. It might be because in the last hour he had asked FRIDAY three separate times where Peter was, only to retreat in the opposite direction. He could admit it to himself but he'd be damned if he'd admit to anyone else, he was terrified. He could have lost everything today. That thought made his hands shake. He kicked debris that was in his path only to have it fly back across the floor.

"Metal Man too loud."

Tony tilted his head and walked though what used to be a door. "Hulk?"

Hulk was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He was starting to miss Sakaar. Maybe if Angry Girl came down she would make him feel better. He looked down at Stark. "Mini Stark hurt?"

Tony frowned. While he enjoyed a good nickname as much as anyone, probably more so, it always took him a couple seconds for his brain to translate Hulk Speak. "Peter? One of those space dogs clawed his back. The stitches were the worst part. He'll be fine in a couple days." Thor had told him that Hulk had been Hulk for a while. He had let Banner out when they were escaping but Thor wasn't sure if he'd let him out again. "He heals faster than Cap does, which means that there's nothing he can take to help with pain. He's a tough kid though. I can't wait for you to get to know him." Tony looked up at Hulk. "Do you need anything Big Guy?"

Hulk shook his head and watched Tony start to leave. "Hulk missed Metal Man."

Tony smiled. "I'm glad you're back. If you need anything let me know."

Hulk frowned at the floor when he was alone again. "Banner...if I let you out...you can't keep Hulk locked away..."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Oh, thank God. Peter, are you ok?"

Peter and MJ had exited the elevator to find Pepper pacing in the living room. "I'm fine, Pepper. My back is just a little scratched up."

MJ fought off a laugh. Peter had 145 stitches in his back. Not exactly a scratch. "FRIDAY said Morgan still has the Iron Spider deployed."

Pepper nodded. "I would have thought Karen would let me override the controls."

Peter frowned. "Unlock control was supposed to be me, you, and dad. I'll go talk to her and see if I can get my suit back." He didn't want to let Pepper in on the secret as to how he had manipulated FRIDAY and Karen for so many years. He was pretty sure Morgan had unknowingly done the same thing. She might need it someday, so for now It could just be a malfunction.

He left Pepper and MJ in the living room and walked down the hall to Morgan's room. Pushing open the door he could see the Waldo legs sticking out of a makeshift tent Morgan had set up in the corner of her room. He gingerly lowered himself to his knees and poked his head inside the tent. The Iron Spider had its eyes closed and he thought he detected the faint sound of music. Karen had probably asked FRIDAY for Morgan's favorites in an attempt to console her. "Hey Morgan."

The mask slid back as Morgan's face popped up. "Peter..."

Peter maneuvered into a sitting position more out of necessity as Morgan crawled into his lap. "You know dad's ok, right?" He thought the question might have been for his own benefit as well as his sister's.

Morgan nodded. "Karen showed me. But Peter...I felt it."

Peter wrapped his arms around Morgan. "I did too. It's why I stayed out instead of coming back with you." Peter had been trying to figure out how to explain a multiverse to an almost 5 year old. It hadn't been going well in his head. "Morgan, imagine that someone invented time travel."

Morgan frowned. "Like Daddy?"

Peter chuckled. "If anyone could do it, my bet is on dad." He forced the smile off his face because he thought he'd probably only have one shot at trying to explain what had happened before confusing them both. "Say you travel back in time. What do you think would happen if you changed something. If you did something that meant Walt Disney didn't create Mickey Mouse. What do you think would happen when you got back to your time?"

A look of horror crossed Morgan's face. "No Disney World?"

Peter laughed. They had taken Morgan to Disney World a couple months ago and had managed to somehow all remain incognito. Morgan had declared it the best days of her life. "Maybe. Or maybe you caused a new timeline." He picked up a frayed ribbon and tore it down the middle until he reached the center of the length. "So the part that's together...that's before someone messed with time. The part after? This side is the first timeline and this side is the one that was created when Mickey Mouse wasn't created."

Morgan frowned. "I like our side better."

Peter smiled. Now came the hard part. He wasn't sure he could make it through it but if he didn't he could definitely see Morgan never taking off the Iron Spider. "We think someone messed with time trying to save everyone from a really bad guy. When they did, they created other timelines. So what you and I felt was coming from another timeline."

Morgan took a deep breath and laid her head on Peter's chest. "Other Morgan and other Peter...their daddy died."

Peter nodded and bit back a choked sob. "I think so." He felt Morgan tighten her arms around his neck. "But ours didn't?"

"FRIDAY, where is dad right now?"

"Boss is in the conference room on the second floor." As if anticipating the next question she added, "All vitals are normal."

"Morgan, I know what you felt because I felt it too. I don't know how to make that ache that's sitting deep in my chest go away. I just keep reminding myself that he's ok. FRIDAY and Karen will both just have to put up with us asking about him 100 times a day." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Feel any better?"

Morgan shrugged. "Daddy tried to come find me once he made sure you were ok and I ran in here. I'm scared that he's not actually there."

Peter nodded. "Perfectly logical. The suit makes you feel safe?"

Morgan nodded. "And Karen is really nice."

Peter grinned. "She is, isn't she." Peter thought through what he was about to offer. "MJ was scared too. She wants me to make her a suit. Do you want to help?"

Morgan's eyes lit up. "Can it be a surprise?"

Peter nodded. "Of course. And, if you still want a suit you can design one for yourself too."

"But I have to give you your suit back?" The armor was already slipping back into its housing. She slipped off the watch and handed it back to Peter. "I get ice cream, right?"

"Absolutely. MJ and Pepper are waiting for us in the living room. You three can eat some ice cream and I'll go find dad and let him know that he's back to having one daughter and one Spider."


	6. I’m Here

Peter opened the door quietly and slid into the conference room. FRIDAY had already given him the heads up that most of the team was in there, including Loki and Thor. He leaned against one of the tables near the back and listened to the conversation, trying to figure out what they were talking about. He noticed his dad had looked over at him when he had walked in. He couldn't decipher the look on his face and that worried him.

"Odin is dead?" Strange looked over at Thor. If Ragnarök had taken place, then Odin almost certainly had to be dead.

Thor looked at Dr. Strange. It was an odd reaction. He somehow expected more sympathy. "Yes." He glanced over at Loki. He didn't think either one of them really had taken the time to understand what that meant. As was typical, Loki wore a mask of indifference.

Tony crossed his arms and looked at Stephen. Strange was infamous for his less than stellar bedside manner but the statement was abrupt, even for him.

Stephen looked around the room and realized none of them had the benefit of knowledge. Knowledge that only came from having access to quite possibly the only archive of its kind on Earth. "Odin is...was considered to be in a very small group of powerful beings that hold the universe in check. Some of them seek peace, others seek domination and even destruction. Together they keep each other from tearing the universe apart." He glanced around at his audience and realized not all of them were understanding.

Peter thought through what Stephen was saying and an image popped into his head. "Like the balancing trap in National Treasure...the second one...mutually assured destruction."

Tony stifled a laugh, mostly at the look of exasperation on Stephens face. He offered an alternative guess. "If one gets too ambitious the others step in?"

"It's a little more homeostatic than that. I doubt some of them are even aware that they're acting in this role." Even though it pained him to say he he looked over at Peter. "Peter's example is a little closer to what actually happens." He looked over at Thor. "If Odin is gone and your home world is destroyed then we are a step closer to the universe being out of balance." Another thought occurred to him. "The Space Stone. I believe it's also known as the tesseract. It was on Asgard, correct?" Odin's death had significant ramifications but not quite as many as the loss of an infinity stone in this universe.

Thor thought through what Dr. Strange was asking and nodded. "The cube as well as many other artifacts were in the Vault. I'm not sure anything would have survived."

Tony knew first hand how powerful the stones were and he remembered what Stephen had said after the first bleed through event, how unstable the other universe had become with the loss of their infinity stones. He noticed the look on Loki's face and couldn't tell if he should be concerned or not.

Loki glanced around the room and saw Stark's eyes on him. "That is not entirely correct." Loki swallowed as he continued. He couldn't believe he was about to give up his bargaining chip. He glanced around and realized all eyes were on him, including his brothers' that were screaming 'Loki, what have you done now?' Extending his palm the cube appeared in his hand. He heard Strange let out a sigh of relief. Thor had simply crossed his arms and was staring at him. Loki knew he was wrestling with whether he had done a good thing or a bad thing. "As an act of good will, I offer the cube to you with the understanding that even if Thanos has left this universe, there are others that seek its power. It will need to be protected."

Stephen glanced over at Tony and Steve, "There are three stones on Earth. We might as well put up a flashing bulls-eye that says 'come take them from us'."

"If you don't want it...". Loki began, smirking at the responses he got.

"Well, you're not keeping it." Tony walked over to one of the cabinets in the room and grabbed a metal case out of the draw. Opening it, he held it open for Loki to place the cube in. "We'll find somewhere to secure it until we can find another option."

Steve reached over and took the case from Tony. "Meanwhile, it stays in here." The look he gave Tony was one that said 'you're not keeping it either...don't make me bring up Ultron'.

Natasha smirked at the two before moving to the back of the room. She leaned on the table next to Peter. "Why are you still vertical?"

Peter laughed. "Partially because I can't figure out how to get comfortable." There was more to it than that but nothing he wanted to talk about. He shrugged at the look Natasha gave him. He was well aware that they were all used to him falling asleep if he had gotten hurt on a mission and that he generally didn't care where he crashed. "Dr. Cho made me go through two IV bags before kicking me out to make room for the wounded from Asgard." Changing subjects, he nodded over at Thor and Loki. "So that's Thor..."

Natasha laughed, "That's right...you never met Thor."

"He is pretty much how I imagined him. Loki on the other hand is nothing like I imagined him." Peter watched Thor and Loki talking with Steve and his dad.

Natasha frowned, "Loki is not how he was before. I still don't trust him." She shrugged. "We'll keep an eye on him." She glanced over at Peter. "You need to talk to your dad. Your little stunt today..."

"I wasn't a stunt, Nat. There was a lot going on." He paused, realizing that maybe he and Morgan were the only two that felt anything. "Did you see or hear anything from the other side? Feel anything?"

Natasha studied Peter before shaking her head. "No. Steve caught sight of his other. For someone who doesn't freak out over anything, it kind of freaked him out." She paused, "The other shield broke. I think he found it unsettling."

Peter frowned. "But you didn't feel anything? Did you see your other?"

Natasha shook her head. She wasn't sure what Peter was fishing for. She did find it odd that everyone else seemed to be a little shaken after the tears. Her gut instinct had saved her more times than she could count so the fact that everyone else had a 'feeling' they couldn't put into words while she saw it as just another battle did bother her, but not enough to be overly concerned. "I take it you did?"

"Yeah...it was...unsettling."

xxxxxxxxxx

Tony stole a glance at Peter before turning his attention to Thor and the problem at hand. "We can come up with something. If needed we can create temporary living space here until we can find something a little more permanent." He glanced over at Peter again. Bucky and Steve had joined Natasha. He moved his attention back to Thor. "Any thoughts on where you want to try to settle?"

Loki cleared his throat. "Our father spent time in Norway. I think we would like to see if they would be amenable to a New Asgard."

Thor smiled. Loki was trying, at least he hoped that was what it was. It truly would be a way to honor their father. He looked at Stark to gauge his response.

"I'll set up a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador." He studied the two brothers. He had fought by Thor's side on more than one occasion. He knew his relationship with his father hadn't always been the best but at the end of the day he had lost his father. As had the man standing next to him. Another son with a complicated relationship with his father. Then he saw Loki looking past him at Peter.

"Is he your son?" Loki asked. The boy fascinated him. He was young, much younger than the rest of them, but very comfortable with them. What he did know of Stark was that the man was very at home in his armor, which is why it was surprising he would let the boy fight with no protection.

"Yes, which means if you mess with him in any way I will put you in a hole that makes the one the Hulk put you in look like a sandbox kids play in." Tony watched Loki until he was sure he had gotten his point across before looking at Thor who obviously was trying to figure out how long he had been gone from Earth. "I didn't find out he was my son until a couple years ago." He wasn't sure if that statement had helped. Thor seemed to just be taking it for face value.

"I will not harm him." Loki paused until he was sure he had Stark's attention. "You have my word."

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter crossed his arms and watched Natasha, Steve, and Bucky leave. It looked like his dad was wrapping things up with Loki and Thor. He fought the urge to retreat to his room. If he went to his room it was late enough that MJ would be expecting him to crash and he wasn't sure how he was going to do with crashing. The heaviness in his chest was still there. MJ had dealt with him waking up screaming before, he just hated putting her through it. He took a deep breath as his dad walked over with Thor and Loki.

Tony couldn't decide what to think about Loki but he figured he should get introductions out of the way. He led the two Asgardians over to Peter. "Peter...Meet Thor and Loki."

Peter reached out a hand. "Thor, it's nice to meet you. I've heard stories about you." He looked between both of them. "I'm sorry about your father and your home world. It's probably been a rough couple days?” Maybe weeks? He wasn't sure how long it would take a ship to travel from Asgard.

Thor smiled and shook Peter's hand. "Thank you Peter. I look forward to getting to know you. I consider your father to be a good friend."

Peter looked over at Loki once Thor released his hand. He extended it to Loki. "You're not planning on destroying New York again, right?"

Loki smirked and shook Peter's hand. "Not anytime soon." He looked over at Thor. "Brother, we should retire." It had been a long couple days. He wasn't sure of their new surroundings and was sorely tempted to ask Heimdalll to bring him back to the ship.

Tony watched Thor and Loki leave before turning to Peter. "You got your watch back from your sister?"

Peter nodded and pulled himself away from the table. "You're back to only having one spider."

Tony looked at Peter. Facing him alone for the first time since this afternoon, all of his anxiety and fear bubbled to the surface. "What we're you thinking. Of everything you've ever pulled that was by far the least thought out, most dangerous thing you've done."

Peter's own frustration and anxiety flared to match. "Dad, you don't understand!"

"What don't I understand Pete. That you stayed in a battle with no means of protecting yourself? That you're so unbelievably stubborn that you assumed that you'd be fine with no suit? Or that you have zero regard for your own life. You've always been ready and willing to sacrifice yourself. I understand all those things way better than you think I do. I've understood them for years." Tony was beyond frustrated. He was downright pissed off at his son.

"Dad, ...the other you died. That's what Morgan and I both felt." The words exploded out of Peter's mouth as he choked back tears. "I heard your voice as clearly as I hear you now. You used those damn stones to destroyed Thanos and it cost you your life." Peter looked over at his dad and knew his face portrayed every emotion he was feeling. "I couldn't risk that happening. I couldn't leave you. All of the fear I've always had about loosing you came roaring back."

Tony stared at Peter, the anger he had felt moments ago vanishing. His kid was crumbling in front of him. He took a step forward, intending to wrap him in a hug only to have Peter take a step backwards. He put his hands up in an attempt to calm Peter down. "Kid, I'm right here." He hadn't even fully registered what Peter had said. He just knew he was hurting.

"Until you're not." Peter put his hands on the table and leaned on them, aware that he was shaking. He looked up at his dad. "I'm terrified that if I go to sleep I'll wake up and you'll be gone."

Tony took a deep breath. It had been a while since Peter's anxiety had reared up. He had foolishly hoped it had meant Peter had put all of the ghosts to rest. "Peter, it was a different reality. There's no Thanos, no one died today."

Peter shook his head. "My brain knows that but you don't understand. I felt it. When the other you used the stones I felt you die."

Tony reached over and put his hand on Peter's shoulder. He could feel the bandages underneath and hated the fact that the simple motion of touching Peter was probably causing him pain. He could feel his entire body shaking. "I'm right here."

Peter looked over at his dad, eyes brimming with tears. "You died and I feel like part of me died with you. That's what the heaviness in my chest is...it's not being able to breath, having to force myself to move. Making sure Morgan is ok...". Peter took a deep breath before continuing. "Which I feel pretty good about right now...I think I successfully explained a multiverse to a four year old." His mind was reeling. "And she overrode the controls on the suit and definitely knows how to make the tech do what she wants so it's a safe bet that her brain is similar to ours, which is actually pretty fascinating."

If Tony hadn't seen Peter do it before he would have thought he had completely lost it. But, he had learned over the years that if Peter's brain could take control he could work himself out of any anxiety attack. When Peter's brain took control it was amazing what came out of his mouth. So instead of freaking out because Peter was rambling, a smile spread across his face. "Pete, I'm here."

Peter took a deep breath and looked over at his dad. "I know."


	7. Surprise Assistance

_“And I...am Iron Man"_

Peter startled awake with his heart pounding. "FRIDAY, where's dad?" The words tumbled out of his mouth in a panic.

"Boss is in the living room with Morgan watching cartoons. All vitals are within normal ranges."

Peter took a deep breath and focused on getting his heart rate under control. The emptiness was still sitting in his chest but it was a little better than it had been last night. He took another deep breath and kicked the covers off, rolling gingerly onto his back and swinging his feet around to pull himself in a sitting position. His back felt better. It still hurt in places but it no longer felt like it was on fire.

It had taken him forever to fall asleep and when he did he had been on his stomach with an arm thrown across MJ. He probably should have slept a little bit longer but hunger was winning. Plus, he hoped the wounds had healed enough that Dr. Cho could take the stitches out. They were only there to hold his skin together long enough for the spider to start working. He walked down the hall, well aware that it was way past breakfast. MJ was sitting at the bar in the kitchen talking to Pepper and his dad was indeed watching cartoons with Morgan.

Tony saw Peter walk into the kitchen and rose to meet him. "You did not get enough sleep."

Peter shrugged. "I'm hungry and my back itches." He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out left overs from the day before. Taking a bite of a sandwich he chewed and swallowed it before adding "and I want to take a shower which I can't do with all the bandages."

MJ watched Peter and Tony. She had known through most of yesterday that something was wrong. When Peter finally had come to bed last night he had told her what he and Morgan had experienced. He slept fitfully all night which meant she was on her fifth cup of coffee. "I'll go down to see Dr. Cho with you."

Peter nodded and took another bite. He looked over at his dad. "How did Morgan sleep?"

"She ended up in our bed." Tony took a sip of coffee. No one had gotten much sleep last night.

Part of Peter envied the fact that Morgan was young enough to crawl in bed with Pepper and Tony. He felt better being able to hear his dad's distinct heart beat. It was better than having to rely on FRIDAY to reassure him that his dad was okay. He quietly ate the rest of the sandwich, enjoying the steady rhythm coming from his dad's chest.

Pepper took a sip of her own coffee. "If you see Thor, tell him I think the west field is clear. It's not fenced though."

MJ nodded, then saw a look of confusion on Peter's face. "Thor asked FRIDAY if there was somewhere an animal could graze. FRIDAY was vague in the details as to exactly what kind of animal."

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter tugged the bottom of his t-shirt up and awkwardly pulled it over his head. He looked over at MJ who had settled into a chair in a makeshift exam room. The wounded Asgardians were still being treated in most of the other rooms in the medical wing. He stiffened a little when Dr. Cho started pulling back bandages.

"Some of the stitches can come out. I want to leave this group in until tonight." She walked around to stand in front of Peter. "Figure out how to get comfortable, it's going to take me a while to pull them out. I'll be back in a minute."

Peter grabbed a padded chair and sat down backwards again. "You don't have to stay in here with me. I'm ok."

MJ shrugged. "I have no where to be." Plus, if he had a panic attack over Tony she wanted to be there with him. She was pretty sure Dr. Cho would overreact which would make it worse for Peter.

Peter looked towards the door as it pushed open. He was surprised that Dr. Cho wasn't alone. It took him a moment to recognize the man that trailed her into the room. "Dr. Banner?" Peter pushed himself out of the chair only to have Dr. Cho push him back down.

Bruce smiled. He could see pieces of Tony in the boy in front of him. It's why the Hulk had let him out. "Hi Peter." He glanced around the room. "And you must be MJ."

"Does dad know you're...you?" Peter realized the question barely made sense but the general consensus had been that the Hulk probably wasn't going to let Dr. Banner out. Apparently they had been wrong in that assumption."

"Uh...no. I was working on a project. I haven't talked to him yet." He handed Dr. Cho a vial.

"Dr. Banner thinks he may have come up with a topical anesthesia that you can use. It was a formula he had worked up for Steve but never got a chance to test it. When he brought it up last night and we compared his notes against your biomarkers. I thought we'd give it a try." Helen smiled at Bruce. He had changed a little in the eight years since she had last seen him. A little greyer, a little jumpier. She hadn't pried too much when he had shown up in her office last night but from what she could gather, most of the last eight years had been spent as the Hulk.

Bruce walked around to look at Peter's back. "Helen said you heal faster than Steve did." He leaned over to look at the gashes that were in various stages of being healed. "This is amazing."

"Peter, I'm going to test the ointment on a small section first. I just want to make sure you don't have the same reaction you do to lidocaine." Helen dabbed a little bit of the ointment on the first section she was going to remove the stitches from. "Anything?" The first time she had tried lidocaine on Peter, the reaction had been almost instantaneous.

Peter shook his head. "My skin doesn't feel like it's crawling so it's an improvement over before." He looked over at MJ and smiled. If Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho could figure out a topical anesthesia it would be huge. He had spent the last seven years having to just make it through anything that didn't knock him unconscious. The prospect of not having to deal with the pain associated with getting stitched up was almost unimaginable.

"Ok. Dr. Cho is going to start on the first stitch. Let me know what you're feeling. I'm not expecting this to be perfect on the first try so feedback is important." Bruce knelt down in front of Peter to gauge his reaction.

Peter could feel the tug of the stitch but it wasn't excruciating. "I can feel it when she pulls on it but not like before."

Bruce smiled and looked up at Dr. Cho. "I can work with that."

"What is it?" MJ had leaned forward and was watching Peter's face. She knew how desperately he wanted this to work.

"It's an extract from a plant I found in China. Lidocaine wouldn't work because it blocks the nerve impulses and Peter's nerve impulses are unique. This doesn't interact with the nerves the same way. It won't make you completely numb but once we tweak the formula it should take the edge off." Bruce stood up from his position in front of Peter and looked back at MJ. "We can keep changing the formula until we get it right."

"Peter, the Astrea will be back in communications range in 20 minutes."

Bruce looked up at the ceiling. FRIDAY sounded the same as he remembered. "What's the Astrea?"

Peter glanced over his shoulder at Dr. Cho. "It's the ship that met the ship you and Thor were on."

"I'm not going to be done in 20 minutes." Helen fought the urge to roll her eyes at Peter as he frowned in a definite pout.

"FRIDAY, can you ask dad to make contact with the Astrea when it gets into com range?" Peter paused, "Is dad still upstairs?"

"Yes Peter. I've let him know when the ship will be in range." FRIDAY paused, "Peter, everything is within normal ranges."

Peter smiled to himself. He owed FRIDAY for the way she just handled him. Keeping the panic attacks about his dad known to just a small group of people was preferable to having to try to explain what had happened. "Thanks FRIDAY. Can you let me know what he find out when he talks to them?"

"Of course Peter."


	8. The West Field

Tony pushed open the door of the makeshift exam room. "Reed said they should be planet side this afternoon." FRIDAY had already told him Peter was still getting stitches taken out so he hadn't really paused to take in the room's occupants. He froze when he saw Bruce sitting next to MJ. "Bruce?"

Rising, Bruce looked at the man he had considered to be his best friend. Not many people could take the good with the bad and Tony had always embraced both sides of him equally. "Hey Tony." Bruce wasn't sure what kind of reception he would get. A hug was not what he was expecting.

"Bruce, I didn't think the Big Guy was going to share." Tony pulled back from the embrace and looked at his friend. He had genuinely missed Bruce. At the time he had been a little...hurt, for lack of a better word...that the Big Guy had left and by default taken Bruce with him. He would never had admitted it but he had found a friend in Bruce and to have him leave had forced back up several walls that Tony had previously let fall. He didn't have "friends" in the science community and after Ultron, he had even fewer. And then Peter happened. Tony had long ago stopped thinking of it as the 'crap with Steve'. They had buried the incident and formed new bonds out of the shattered remains of past. Tony had instead chosen to focus on the fact that had gained a son out of what was at the time an incredibly low period in his life...which was saying a lot considering the gutters he had been in previously.

"He was motivated." Bruce glanced over at Peter. "When you mentioned Peter last night Hulk realized I might be able to help so we came to an...understanding."

Peter grinned when his dad looked over at him. "Topical anesthesia." He glanced over his shoulder at Dr. Cho who had started on the last grouping she was taking out. "It still hurts but no where near as bad as before."

Tony leaned over and looked at Peter's back. The wounds still looked like ugly red streaks across his back but at least he wasn't bleeding. "Your skins doesn't feel like it's crawling?" He ruffled Peter's hair has he shook his head. He pulled a stool and sat next to Peter before glancing up at Bruce. "What is it? I went through everything we had in our research with Steve."

Bruce crossed his arms and looked at Tony. His friend had changed. How he interacted with Peter was amazing. Tony was relaxed and happy. Bruce had seen Tony happy before but there had always been an underlying shadow and the periods of happiness were always short lived. "It was something I had just started working on. Luckily the samples were still in the lab."

MJ leaned forward, "Tony, are you going to stay in here until he's done?" Receiving a nod, she stood up and walked over to Peter kissing the top of his head. "I'll go see if I can take care of Thor. Tell FRIDAY to let me know when you're done."

Peter nodded and watched MJ walk out before turning back to Bruce and his dad. "So Dr. Banner, what's space like?"

Bruce looked at Peter pensively. "Space is a good place to get lost." He looked over at Tony. "Went through a wormhole...didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would."

Tony frowned. "I didn't like the one I went through either." He glanced over at Peter and realized talking about how he almost died in a wormhole was not something Peter needed right now. "So eight years...you went through wormholes and I got married, have two kids, and bought a lake house."

Bruce smiled, "It suits you. I ended up on a literal trash planet. It seemed fitting. When Thor showed up and told us how long it had been it kind of blew my mind. With the Hulk in charge I never really felt the passage of time. All I knew was that he was content in what he was doing." Bruce sighed. "I don't know how long he's going to let me stay out so I'm apologizing in advance for any damage I might do."

"Maybe the two of you can agree on some kind of arrangement." Tony wasn't entirely sure what that arrangement would look like. Bruce and Hulk always had a problem seeing the other one's viewpoint. He glanced over at Peter when he detected a slight wince.

"I think it's starting to wear off." Peter grimaced again as Dr. Cho removed another stitch.

Bruce glanced down at his watch. "It lasted about an hour. We can tweak and see if we can get it to last longer but I'm afraid that your metabolism isn't going to cooperate."

"I'm almost done." Dr. Cho looked over at Tony. "I'm leaving the stitches in along the top gash. They're deeper. We can check on them tonight."

Tony nodded and watched Peter's face. Now that the medicine was wearing off, he could see the tell tale signs of pain across his face. "Can you waterproof the bandage so he can take a shower?" While Peter was upstairs he could spend some time with Bruce going over the new anesthesia.

Peter smiled up at his dad. At least he'd be able to shower. The heaviness in his chest that he had woken up to had dissipated. Being close to his dad meant he didn't need to rely on FRIDAY or his own brain to tell him that he was ok.

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter shook his head, flipping the damp curls. His hair was shorter than it used to be but when it was wet, the curls always reappeared. FRIDAY had let him know that MJ was still by the west field. Apparently whatever creature Thor had on the ship hadn't made an appearance yet. His dad was with Bruce in the labs. Peter had convinced himself that he was fine and that he didn't need to make a stop in the labs to assure himself that his dad was also fine. Instead, he forced himself in the opposite direction to seek out MJ. He could see her in the distance talking to Thor.

"Valkyrie's exist?" MJ asked in awe. "Of course they exist," answering her own question. "Karen, tell Pepper to bring Morgan to the west field."

Peter joined the two and looked at MJ in confusion. It wasn't often she had a look of amazement on her face.

"It's a Valkyrie, Peter...with an animal that needs to graze." She frowned at the continued look of confusion on his face. "Did you sleep through Lit class our Freshman year?"

"Yes." Peter almost laughed at the look of exasperation on her face now. "Hey...I had just become Spider-Man...cut me some slack." He looked up at the sky as a portal opened. "What's the big deal...Oh...what is that?" Peter scrunched his eyes against the glare of the sun as a creature gracefully flew through the portal.

"That is a Pegasus." MJ breathed the words out as she stared at the creature.

Thor crossed his arms and looked at Brunnhilde and her Pegasus. He had been skeptical about taking a detour to pick up the animal but she had made a good point. Valkyrie weren't complete without their steed. If Brunnhilde had decided she wasn't running from who she was, Thor had made the decision to support her however he needed to...and apparently that meant stopping by a moon in the Nine Realms inhabited by Pegasi. It had the unintended effect of giving the people of Asgard hope when they had thought all hope was lost. It didn't matter how often Thor said Asgard wasn't a place, his people had just lost their home. But, when Brunnhilde had reboarded the ship with a Pegasus in tow, he had seen a change in his people. They saw the rebirth of the Valkyrie in that moment. And with that, the the dawning of a New Asgard.

Brunnhilde slid off the back of her steed and left him to graze. She saw Thor standing next to two people she didn't know. She assumed they were Midgardians. She glanced back to make sure Einar was behaving himself before crossing the field to meet Thor. "Thank you for providing a place for Einar. He did not enjoy being on the ship."

MJ nodded. "Of course. Does he need anything else? We had them put in a makeshift water trough." She couldn't believe she was having a casual conversation with a Valkyrie. Out of everything she had experienced in her time with Peter, this was by far the most mind blowing. Forget the kings and presidents she had met...a living Valkyrie with her Pegasus topped them all.

"Water and grass is fine for now." She on the other hand desperately wanted something a little stronger.

A gasp followed by a quiet squeal caused all four to turn and look for the source. Morgan had frozen on the spot having caught sight of the creature currently pawing at the ground. Another tiny squeal was heard when he ruffled his wings. "Is that a Pegasus?" Pepper came to a stop next to Peter, Morgan's hand firmly grasped in hers.

Brunnhilde laughed. Thor had warned her that Midgardians were sometimes amazed by the smallest things they took for granted. Of course, a Pegasus was something that left most people in awe. "Would you like to see him little one?"

Speechless, Morgan nodded, grabbing Brunnhilde's hand and pulling Pepper with her. MJ took the opportunity to follow. There was no way she was missing out on getting close to a Pegasus.

Peter crossed his arms and stared after MJ, Pepper, and Morgan. He looked over at Thor who was also watching, although Thor seemed to be enjoying the scene more than he was.

"Einar is truly magnificent." Thor glanced over at Peter who didn't seem to share his admiration. "Peter, how are you feeling today? Your wounds seemed pretty severe. Loki was concerned. He was attacked by an Outrider when he was a child."

Peter stared at Thor, puzzling over the fact that Loki was concerned. "I heal fast. Dr. Cho was able to remove most of the stitches this morning." He pulled up the back of his t-shirt to show Thor that the gashes had almost completely healed. "Where is Loki?"

Thor studied Peter's back. "Loki is not sure of his place so he is reading in his room. How is it that you heal so quickly when Stark does not?"

Peter grinned. "Mutated DNA, kind of like Steve." He could already see the question forming in Thor's head. "It was an accident. I was bitten by a spider that had the serum. Dad didn't know anything about it. In fact, he didn't even know he was my father. I didn't meet him until a couple months later and it was almost two years until we knew he was my actual father." He hoped the quick summary would help Thor connect the dots. He looked back to the field and sighed. He didn't see them leaving the flying horse anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Einar is in this story because is much as I love the Pegasus scenes in End Game I kept thinking 'where did the Pegasus come from?'. Einar means 'one who fights alone' or 'bold warrior'. I thought both fit. Unless Brunnhilde starts training new ones they're the end of the Valkyrie


	9. Returns and Debriefs

Tony walked into the kitchen on their floor. He had lost track of time with Bruce. He was a little surprised that Peter hadn't come down to the lab. He was also a little surprised that no one was on the floor. "FRIDAY, where is everyone?"

"Pepper, Morgan, and MJ are on the west field. Peter is with Thor and Steve in the command center."

"Thanks FRIDAY." Tony grabbed a water out of the refrigerator and headed towards the command center. He assumed they were monitoring the re-entry of the Astrea. At least he hoped that was what it was and not some kind of cataclysmic event.

Peter looked up as Tony entered the room. "Hey dad! I talked to Johnny and Wyatt!" He glanced back up at the screen showing their trajectory. "They'll be planet-side within the hour."

Tony smiled at the relief that was evident not only in Peter's voice but also on his face. "Great!" He knew how much Peter worried about his team so the fact that Wyatt and Johnny would be at the compound within an hour would be a huge weight off of Peter. Luckily, the effects of being in space were minimized by the Astrea's design but they had a long way to go if they wanted to be able to do longer missions. Tony wanted to get his hands on Thor's ship. There was a lot they could glean from a ship that hadn't been destroyed in a battle, which was pretty much what they were working off of up to this point. He walked over and stood next to Peter and studied the screen. "Any idea why Pepper, MJ, and Morgan are still on the west field."

Peter rolled his eyes. "They're checking out Brunnhilde's pegasus." He glanced over at Thor, "I think Morgan's already trying to figure out how to talk Thor into picking one up for her."

"I'm sorry...did you say pegasus...as in a flying horse?" Tony stared between Thor and Peter.

"Yes. And they're all completely enamored. Even MJ." Peter glared at Steve and Thor who were losing the fight against not laughing at Peter.

Steve crossed his arms and looked at Peter. "You're just irritated that Morgan completely ignored you because of Einar." There was a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "And you're not used to MJ acting like that over anything. But come on it's a Pegasus. Until a couple hours ago they were mythological creatures."

Peter frowned. He didn't like what Steve was saying but he also knew he wasn't wrong. "It's just a horse." He wasn't sure who was trying to convince at this point. It wasn't just a horse. It was a friggin Pegasus. He looked over at his dad who had sunk down into the chair next to him.

Tony ran a hand over his face. "I have spent years keeping Pepper away from horses. She loves them. She had a couple on the farm she grew up on. Do not get her started on the Palomino named Scottie." He looked over at Peter. "You and I rank pretty far down on her list of favorites compared to that damn horse."

Peter frowned. His dad was notorious for buying ridiculous presents for people. He had toned it down lately but Pepper loved bringing up the giant bunny story. "If she likes horses that much why haven't you bought her one...that something you would totally do..."

Tony sat down next to Peter. "Because as much as she loves horses, I hate horses." He looked over at his son with a defeated look on his face. "We're going to end up with horses."

Thor reached down and squeezed Tony's shoulder. "We can fetch a herd of Pegasi. Einar would appreciate the company."

Tony looked up at Thor. "Not helping."

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter stood under the overhang. The Astrea was using the Quinjet landing pad. He had stood here many times over the last couple years waiting for someone to land. This was the first time he was waiting on someone to come back from space. Part of him was jealous that Johnny and Wyatt had gotten there first. He could hear the engines above the clouds and looked skyward. He could just make out the gleam of silver as the Astrea broke through the clouds. He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

Tony walked out and stood next to Peter. He knew Thor wasn't far behind him. He had arranged for a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador for tomorrow and had somehow convinced him to come to the compound. Tony wasn't sure how Peter or even Morgan would have taken his absence if he had gone to DC. Peter seemed to be doing ok but every once in a while he'd catch a fleeting look on his face that screamed 'I'm not ok'. He forced his attention back to the craft that had settled on the landing pad. Door opening, he saw Johnny alight first, followed closely by Wyatt, Reed, Sue, and Ben.

"We leave for two days and you get attacked by space dogs." Johnny grinned before giving Peter a hug.

Wyatt stopped next to Johnny. "Seriously...it's like you need a baby sitter or something."

"We need to stop calling them Space Dogs. I think it's giving the wrong impression. Dogs are cute. These things were vicious demons with nothing but claws and really big teeth." Peter looked past Johnny and Wyatt at Reed and Tony. He knew how much it was bothering both of them that they couldn't get the communications array to work correctly. He had faith that they'd work it out, but until then he counted on there being a little bit of crankiness in the lab. He felt Thor walk up next to him. He couldn't help but to feel small next to the man. Wyatt came close to him in height but no where near him in bulk.

"Thor, it's nice to meet you in person." Johnny extended his hand to shake Thor's.

Thor glanced over at Ben, "I wasn't aware you had a Kronan warrior on your team. My friend Korg is worried about how he'll fit in on Earth."

Peter frowned. "Ben isn't a Kronan warrior...although I'm not sure I know what a Kronan warrior is."

"They're warriors from Ria...made from rocks." Thor gestured to Ben.

Johnny shook his head. "Ben was exposed to cosmic radiation. Turned him to stone. Turned me to fire." Johnny flamed up briefly as a visual demonstration.

Peter looked up at Thor. "Wait...you mean there are people made of rocks that haven't been exposed to some kind of accidental radiation."

Thor glanced down at Peter. "Yes. Korg tells fantastic rock, paper, scissors jokes." He looked back at Ben. "He would be very interested in meeting someone who isn't naturally made of stone."

Peter smirked at Johnny and Wyatt. "Ben needs to adopt the rock, paper, scissors thing...it would be hysterical." He looked back over at Thor. "Have you and dad come up with a plan yet to bring everyone down?"

"I think it depends on how the meeting goes with the ambassador tomorrow, but we're going to start bringing people down in the morning." Thor clasped Peter on the shoulder, careful to make contact with the non-injured one, then turned to follow Tony and Reed into the building.

Wyatt shook his head. "He is every bit what I imagined the God of Thunder to be like."

Peter nodded. "I know! Loki on the other hand is nothing like I imagined."

"Loki's here?" Johnny followed Peter as he led them towards the building. He could see the remains of the battle littered across the field ahead of them.

Peter nodded sliding his hand across the door to open it. "Dinner and debrief in about an hour. Loki should be there."

xxxxxxxxxx

Tony looked around the room, they really needed a bigger area. His eyes landed on Peter and he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. Johnny and Wyatt being back had changed his mood drastically. The three of them were already seated at the table next to Natasha and Steve. Judging by the look on their faces and Johnny's animated motions he was guessing it was something related to the trip to space. He saw Wong standing next to Stephen on the other side. He hadn't expected to see the man there. Stephen always called him a librarian but Tony knew from experience Wong was more than just a librarian.

He noticed Steve stand up and walk towards him. "Got a plan?" Tony glanced around the room again before looking back at Steve.

"Sure. Figure out what we're doing with the infinity stones and how we're planning on protecting Earth from a cosmic threat you know is coming." Steve glanced over to the door as he watched Thor and Loki enter. "I think we need to find out everything Thor found out about the Infinity Stones. Then see what Loki knows. Nat talked to Fury earlier and he has something he wants to show us." He looked back at Tony. "Did Clint head back to the farm?"

Tony nodded. "Loki is a little too much of a reminder of a bad couple days. And he was a little freaked out that Laura and the kids were here when everything happened yesterday."

Steve nodded. "A little more info from Strange would have been nice." He glanced back over at Peter. "Is he doing better?"

Tony shrugged. "His back is healing. Some of the stuff he saw from the other side got to him." Tony didn't want to share the rest of it. The knowledge that the other him had died left him feeling a little more exposed than he'd like to admit.

"Understandable. It was an odd sensation to catch sight of yourself in a battle like that. We've been through some fights but nothing like that."


	10. The Infinity Stones

Thor settled in his chair and looked around the room. Taking a sip of his drink before setting it down. "When I left after Ultron, I searched for signs of Thanos. I didn't find much, which after hearing that he had left this timeline for another makes sense now." He paused and looked around the group. He, for one, was glad there would not be a Thanos to face, but it didn't mean there weren't other threats. "In my search for Thanos, I heard rumors about the stones. They are as ancient as time itself and more powerful than any being in existence. They are said to be the remnants of singularities from the beginning of time. They have also said to have been created by cosmic entities to balance the universe. Like the stories of Asgard's creation, the truth probably lies somewhere in between." Thor paused to take another sip of his drink and let the weight of his words sink in.

Wong leaned forward. It wasn't often he got to speak with someone older than some of his books. "How many stones have you heard stories of?" He had come across a vague reference that had at first been dismissed. He was starting to think he shouldn't have dismissed it so quickly.

"Six known stones. The Mind Stone which resides within the Vision." Thor nodded to Vision. "The Aether or Reality Stone was recovered on Earth two years before Ultron. Sif delivered it to The Collector. He's eccentric but capable of guarding it. The Space Stone was tucked away safely on Asgard in Odin's Vault which just left the Power Stone, the Time Stone, and the Soul Stone." He glanced over at Dr. Strange. "Until returning to Earth I had not heard any rumors about the whereabouts of the Time Stone. I feel like it's location is guarded well."

Steve leaned back in his chair. "What about the Power Stone and Soul Stone."

"The Soul Stone is like the story that is told to terrify children. Secreted on a long dead planet, guarded by a faceless demon. Hopefully it means that it's secure. There are too many dead planets to search them all." The stories about the Soul Stone were disturbing at best. They varied in detail but the common denominator was sacrifice. The cost of a soul. Thor took another sip of his drink before continuing. "The Power Stone has been more active. It was gathered by one of Thanos' agents. A rebel Kree by the name of Ronan."

Peter leaned forward. "We've run into Kree before."

Thor frowned, "On Earth?" Receiving a nod from Peter his frown deepened. "Ronan was a radical. An extreme version of the Kree, a terrorist. He had an arrangement with Thanos. If he secured the stone, he would be allowed to use it to destroy civilizations that he considered to be his enemies. The Skrull..."

"Met them too...". Peter added.

Thor frowned. The idea that Kree and Skrulls has been on Earth while he had been away was unsettling. "And Xandar."

"Haven't met them...". Peter looked around the table..."There are a lot of players on the field. I'm just trying to keep up."

Natasha laughed. "I'll share my notes with you later." She tapped the end of her pencil on the table. "So does Ronan still have the Power Stone?"

Thor shook his head. "The Nova Corp was able to keep him from destroying Xandar but at great cost. I understand they had some help from the Ravagers." He looked around the table at the lost looks on half their faces. "Space Pirates."

Tony shook his head. Peter was right, there were too many players on the field. "So who has the Power Stone now? Xandar?"

Thor nodded. "I would consider that one to be the most at risk. The Nova Corp was at one time the finest military in the universe. In defeating Ronan, they lost half of the capital city and three fourths of their fleet."

"Ok, six stones and we think only one is truly at risk? I'm liking our odds a little better." Sam leaned over and looked at Natasha's notes.

Thor took a deep breath. "Maybe. But what our friend Wong was alluding to...there may be a seventh stone. One that directs you to the other stones and enables the bearer to easily retrieve them...and control them all."

Wyatt threw his pencil on the table. "Of course there's a seventh stone. What is it...the fourth horseman? Death? Maybe Rhythm...the rest of these sound way too doom and gloom."

All eyes turned at the low chuckle coming from Thor's left side. Loki leaned back and looked at the group. "I found it humorous." The smile left his face. "I believe the stone my brother is referring is the Aesir although it's been known by other names. The Ego Stone and Nemesis are two names that come to mind."

Stephen, elbows resting on the arm of his chair, tapped his fingers together thinking through what Loki was saying. "And do you know where we can find the seventh stone?"

Loki saw his brother turn to look at him. He took a deep breath and looked at the group. "Thanos mentioned looking for it. He did not have the location of the soul stone and locating the seventh stone was an avenue of inquiry he was pursuing. The problem is, it's not in this dimension."

"Ok...what does that even mean?" Tony leaned back in his chair. If they were getting into different dimensions they were about to lose half of the group. It was bad enough that they were discussing cosmic entities and different planets. Now they were adding dimensions. He glanced over at Peter who had leaned forward in his chair. He could see the wheels turning as his son processed what was being discussed.

Loki smirked, "There are different dimensions. Dormammu resides in the Dark Dimension..."

"He's already been dealt with." Stephen stared at Loki. He was certainly knowledgeable, dangerous, but knowledgeable.

Loki nodded, "the Dream Realm, Elysium, the Void, the Negative Zone just to name a few others. I truly do not know where the Seventh Stone resides. Just that Thanos did not believe it resides in our dimension."

Peter looked over at his dad before looking back at the group. "We can simplify this. The goal it to make sure the Earth is safe, right?" He looked at Steve for a nod before continuing, "And as long as the good guys have the stones and can protect them, it eliminates a Thanos level threat." He waited for the consensus of nods. "Then we just make sure the power stone is safe. Why is it more complicated than that."

Steve leaned back. "Peter has a point but most of us have had to deal with the stones at one point or another. They're dangerous and we know virtually nothing about their true power. And, based on Strange's comments last night if Odin is gone does that let loose a Thanos level threat that is also going after the stones?" He looked over at Thor and Loki. "And why now." He hated to even ask but here were too many dots that he couldn't connect. "Odin's death..."

Loki stared at the table. He was culpable for so many aspects of what was currently going on. Some of it intentional but some of it he truly felt regret for. "I banished him to Earth and took over Asgard, assuming his identity. Without being connected to Asgard his power drained. That was ten years ago." He glanced over at Thor when he detected a chuckle.

"Oddly enough it was one of the longest periods of peace for Asgard." Thor looked over at his brother. "I may not agree with your methods but as ruler you didn't do a terrible job."

Stephen interrupted the two brother, "He had been in Norway for years when I directed you there. Where was he before?"

Loki cleared his throat. "The Shady Acres Care Home."

Peter frowned. "The one on 9th Street? That place was demolished years ago. Before I became Spider-Man."

"Where we found him in Norway was close to where he had lived when he was on Earth. It's probably why he chose there. While it wasn't Asgard, there was enough of a tie to the land to sustain him. If he had spent less time there his death would have come quicker." Thor thought through the events of the last ten years. If he had come home sooner Odin might still be alive. While Loki certainly shared much of the burden of responsibility for what was going on now, he had chosen to stay away chasing stones. He had told himself he was protecting the universe but he knew he was also avoiding home and his father.

"Ok, so with Odin being dead, it opens the door for another Thanos level threat. Do we know who those players are?" Steve glanced over at Natasha who was still taking notes. He knew FRIDAY was recording everything but Natasha had a way of seeing connections between things that no algorithm could match. He hoped between all of them they would have a head start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hope that wasn't too painful. I feel like I do need to do a timeline 101 for anyone interested. This timeline branches off in 2014. This means that everything that happened before 2014 is the same as what we know and love in the MCU. All of the Iron Man movies, Original Avengers, Thor I & II. Everything past that is a little iffy. I tend to lump in Winter Soldier with pre-branch and everything else post-branch. So lets break down what's post-branch...Guardians 1, 2, Ultron, Civil War, Homecoming, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Ragnarok, Infinity War, End Game, Far From Home. The further out you get the more changes there are and for the ones where Thanos & Company were directly involved, those were drastically changed. Guardians 1 & 2 are vastly different. No Gamora. No Nebula. I've seen people make the case that the only reason the Guardians were together were because of Gamora. I disagree. I rewatched the movie and Peter, Rocket, & Groot still would have gotten arrested and once they were in jail they were already sticking close together. I think the events would have unfolded pretty close to the way they did in the movie with the one change being they didn't try to stop Ronan by getting on his ship - which explains more damage to Xandar. There's obviously also no Infinity War, Eng Game, or Far From Home.
> 
> The movies that don't have a Thanos directly involved...which is pretty much Ultron, Civil War, Homecoming, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, and Ragnarok. This is where I'm taking a little bit of liberty with some tiny changes. I think Civil War, Homecoming, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange are pretty much the same. Ragnarok shifted forward and I'm pinning it solely on two things...Thor's staying away from Asgard longer searching for information on Infinity Stones and my claim that if Odin was closer to a power source (ie in Norway close to where he was before) he could have stayed alive longer. Shady Acres was demolished sooner in this timeline which allowed Odin to break the spell faster. Just go with it...suspension of disbelief...
> 
> Last note...y'all...google the Rhythm Stone...it's hysterical. And, yes, my kids are young enough to have played this game...
> 
> Comments are always apppreciated!


	11. The Next Big Bad

"Ok, who are the big bads that could be a Thanos level threat?" Sam leaned back in his chair and looked across the table at Thor and Loki. "Other than a couple run ins with a few Skrulls and Kree, the Chitauri...". He paused and looked across the table at Loki before continuing "have been the only other non-Earth based bad guys we've come up against, right?" He glanced around the table for confirmation.

Loki hadn't missed the directed stare at the mention of the Chitauri. "There are many factions that can cause disorder, however very few can become a threat on that scale." He looked over at his brother. "The Dark Elves were destroyed." His contribution to that effort should at least give him some points in his favor. So far, everyone had taken Thor at his word that Loki wasn't a threat but he knew a time would come when he would be held accountable for his part in the destruction before.

Wong sat back, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. "Some of the books mention names without much of a description. Does Abraxus, Ego - I'm pretty sure it's different from the stone, Galactus, Kang, Annihilus, or Phoenix mean anything to you?"

Thor frowned again. "I have heard stories of most of them. Some are so old that like your books, few details have survived the ages. I would be quite interested in seeing some of these books."

"I think that can be arranged. You can either travel with Wong to the Sanctum or he can bring them here." Stephen glanced over at Wong, not missing the look of veiled shock on his face. They were to the point that not sharing information would end up being detrimental.

"Field trip to the library is going to have to wait until after our meeting with the ambassador." Tony glanced over at Thor. "Checking on the Power Stone is going to be a priority, as well as building a database of what we know about the stones. If we know what they can do we can start working on a defense." He paused cycling through what they would need. "Where exactly is Xandar."

"In what I believe you call the Andromeda galaxy. We will need a ship to take us. The one we escaped Asgard in has taken enough damage that I'm not sure we could get there safely." Thor looked over at Johnny and Wyatt. "Will your craft not suffice?"

Johnny shook his head. "Sub-light engines. We might get there in a couple million years. Can you do your lighting thing to portal there?" Natasha had told them how Thor, Loki, and Hulk had arrived during the battle. He was sorry he missed it.

Thor smiled and shook his head. "It really only works within the Nine Realms...I think." Thor frowned to himself. It was so new he honestly wasn't sure what he could do.

Natasha glanced over at Tony. "Fury has been working on something. Why don't Steve and I go see him while you and Thor are meeting with the ambassador."

Tony looked over at Peter. "Take Peter with you. I get the distinct impression that Fury has been working on something more on the cosmic scale. If it's got engines I want the kid to look at it."

Acutely aware that they were leaving the meeting without actual answers, everyone started to head their separate ways. Wanda watched everyone leave. She had been quiet all day, pensive. Vision knew but was giving her some space. Tony was talking to Peter about engines and a lot of other stuff she didn't quite understand so she waited for Peter to leave. She knew Tony would follow so she'd have to move quickly. She had been oscillating between saying something and letting the past stay buried for the last 24 hours...longer if she were honest. "Tony..."

Turning towards her, Tony met Wanda's eyes. She had been quiet since yesterday, although she was never one of the more vocal members of the team. He knew there was a lot going on in that head of hers, probably more than he'd ever know or understand. "Wanda."

She sucked in a breath. "Yesterday...the bleed through event..."

Ah, that's what this was about. Pieces started clicking. He hadn't given it much thought before now. Partly because he had tried to bury the past and partly because since the first tear opened he had been occupied. Between the battle, Morgan, Peter, the Asgard refuges, and whatever was brewing, he hadn't had a whole lot of time to think. But now, with Wanda standing in front of him he knew exactly what was on her mind. "It looked familiar."

"Tony, the vision I gave you...that was the reality that came through yesterday...or at least one of them." Guilt swarmed over Wanda. "I was feeding off your fear but the visions I gave all of you were based on possibilities of things to come."

Tony studied Wanda. He barely knew anything about her powers. It wasn't from lack of trying. It bothered him when he didn't know everything about a subject but Wanda was always less than cooperative. Charles had shed some light on what she was capable of but he wasn't sure if Charles even knew how her powers worked. "You can see the future?"

Wanda frowned. "I don't...I see possibilities. All of the possibilities. It's a lot. When I let you take the scepter I did it because I thought you would destroy yourself trying to avoid that future. I didn't understand what the stones were capable of, I'm not sure I do now."

"And what do you see now?" Tony was processing what she was saying. He knew she could manipulate everything from particles to minds but seeing the possible outcomes could be useful.

Wanda shook her head. "I see too much. Some of it is good, some of it is bad." She smiled, "I always find it so reassuring, you and Peter are always together in the good ones. I find comfort in that."

Tony pondered what she was saying. The good and the bad. He knew how much anxiety he had about imagining the future where they lost. "Wanda, how do you deal with that much...input?"

Wanda shrugged, "Charles helps, Vision helps more. It's just part of who I am now." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry..."

"It's in the past Wanda. Leave it there. I have. Focus on the future. If you see anything that might be helpful, let me know."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Mommy and MJ have to go back so you get to 'handle me'." Her tone had a bit of an edge to it for Pepper's benefit but Peter could tell she was ecstatic by the prospect. He had barely made it off of the elevator before he had gotten assailed by the 40 lb ball of energy.

"What do you mean Pepper and MJ have to go back." Peter looked down the hall at Pepper, realizing she was in a skirt and heels instead of the more casual clothes she had been in the last couple days.

"There was an issue in Hong Kong, nothing overly problematic, just something we need to handle." Pepper finished putting earrings in and walked towards Peter, who had pulled Morgan up onto his back. "She isn't quite ready to leave." Pepper gave Peter a look that added 'Tony' to the end of the sentence.

Peter nodded, more than understanding Morgan's need to stay close to her dad. "We have a project to work on anyway. Where's MJ?"

"Getting ready." Pepper paused, "I know watching a five year old makes handling ops meetings here a little challenging."

Peter shook his head. "It's fine. If I need to do something she can hang out with one of her many 'aunts' and 'uncles'."

Pepper smirked at Peter's comment. There weren't many kids who had Avengers as babysitters. She looked up at Morgan. "You are not allowed to go on any missions, got it?"

"Yes, Mommy." Morgan scrambled up to Peter's shoulders before leaning down to kiss her mom.

Peter swung towards his and MJ's room. Pushing open the door with a foot he almost collided with MJ trying to leave the room. "Hey!"

"Hey yourself." MJ leaned over and gave Peter a quick kiss before stepping around him and Morgan. "Headed back. Any idea when you're back in the city?"

Peter followed her back down the hall, Morgan enjoying the ride on his shoulders. "No. Maybe a couple days."

MJ stopped and looked at Peter. "Are you ok?"

Peter nodded. "I'll be fine." He tapped Morgan's leg. "We have a project to work on."

Smiling, MJ leaned over and kissed him again. "Let me know if you have to leave?"

Morgan and Peter watched MJ head to the elevator and follow Pepper. "Is the project making a suit for MJ?" Morgan rested her chin on Peter's head.

"Step one is designing a suit. Want to head down to the labs?"

xxxxxxxxxx

Thor followed Tony into a room that was similar to one he had seen Tony working in before. He took in the sight in front of him. Tony's youngest was sitting on a table looking at a hologram while Peter was manipulating a design of what looked like a suit. He had seen Tony work before. It was always mind blowing to watch the man work. The chaotic energy Tony always exhibited was on display in front of him. "He looks very much like you."

Tony smiled at the comment. He couldn't agree more. He loved seeing Peter work. At times Peter worked so fast that outsiders might see it as chaotic, but he knew from experience that it was just a display of how Peter's brain worked. He watched Morgan lean forward and tap the hologram to add a feature to what ever suit Peter was working on. He saw her look over and get a smile on her face.

"Daddy!"

Peter glanced over at to the door. He had heard his dad and he had guessed Thor walk in. His dad's heartbeat had been accompanied by one he wasn't familiar with which really only left Thor, Loki, or Brunnhilde. The sound Loki's heart made was slightly different than the other two in speed. And Thor's heartbeat just sounded deeper and stronger...just like you would assume the God of Thunder's heart would sound like. He tapped the suit to flatten the hologram back down.

"Thor wanted to know if you wanted to feed Einar." Tony smiled as Morgan squealed and jumped off the table. "I'll take that as a yes?" He watched her grab Thor's hand and drag him down the hall talking a mile a minute about Einar. He turned back to Peter. "What are you working on?"

Peter looked back down at the flattened design. "MJ asked for a suit. I can't tell if she's serious or not so I'm taking advantage of the situation and actually making her one." He glanced up at his dad. "Morgan is helping."

Tony looked over Peter's shoulder. "What's that one?" He tapped another file and watched another suit appear in front of them. "This one seems a little smallish."

Peter swallowed. "Well, Morgan asked if she could have a suit. And after what happened and after hearing what may come I thought a suit wasn't such a bad idea. It's defensive only. She can't blow anything up." He wasn't entirely sure how his dad would take the idea of Morgan having a suit.

Tony chuckled. "It's ok. I was having a similar thought." He tapped another file and another suit appeared next to the suit Morgan and Peter were designing. "I actually like your design better."

Peter grinned at the two holograms. "That's because Morgan designed most of it. I did talk her out of some of the more outlandish ideas she tried to add."

Tony nodded and dismissed both of the holograms. "We'll get them finished up in the next couple days. I'd rather everyone have some kind of defense sooner rather than later." He looked over at Peter and studied his son. "How are you doing kid?"

Peter shrugged, "Better. I still have moments where I panic that something is wrong but FRIDAY and Karen always just report your location and vitals. Karen has started doing it whenever she senses my heart rate increasing. Those moments are lessening though."

Tony nodded. "Think you'll be ok to go with Natasha and Steve to meet with Fury? I have the distinct impression that he's already working on something we can use to fight off any cosmic threats. I'm hoping there's some kind of ship involved. The more I think about it the more I think we need to get the Space Stone off Earth."

Peter nodded. "I'll be occupied with whatever Fury has plus Karen can just ping me if she thinks I'm starting to freak out."

Tony didn't like the fact that Peter was still struggling. "Are you sure? We can send Johnny. He's been around Reed enough that he'd be able to pick up on whatever designs Fury has for engines."

Peter shook his head. "I'll be fine. Besides, Johnny and Wyatt are both heading back to work on the Astrea designs." He looked over at his dad. "I'll be fine. I promise."


	12. SWORD

Peter stepped off the ramp of the Quinjet onto the deck of a helicarrier. Fury had gone back to using the floating fortress as his home base after the incident at the Triskelion. Of course it wasn't a Helicarrier that Hydra had ever had their hands on. It's one that he had built from scratch that only his people touched. Peter knew his dad had consulted on the design and the engines. Sometimes it was surreal to Peter that he was included by default in the very small group of people that Nick Fury tolerated. He knew the word trust was way too big of a word to describe the relationship they all had with Fury. It was more like mutual respect. They all knew when push came to shove assistance would be given by all parties. He followed Natasha and Steve through the crisp halls until they ended up in a private ops room. Sitting at the head of the table was Fury.

"What can I do for the Avengers today?"

Natasha walked over to the table and placed a holographic projector down and triggered it. "We need to make sure one of the infinity stones is secure...on a planet called Xander which is located in the Andromeda galaxy." She pointed at dot highlighted in the spiral galaxy on display.

"I know where Xander is."

Peter had never gotten used to the sarcastic tone Fury had virtually every time he talked to him. He crossed his arms and waited for the response he knew was coming.

"You know where Xander is." Steve knew it came out more of a statement than a question. "I supposed you have a ship that none of us know about that can get there as well?" Steve's eyes drilled into Fury. They had developed a symbiotic relationship that worked most of the time. It just irked Steve beyond belief that after all this time Fury still held his cards so close to his chest.

Fury sighed and looked at the three Avengers in front of him. "Working no. Designed yes." He paused a moment, more for effect than anything else. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Peter watched Natasha slip into a chair and push the chair next to her back slightly. He crossed the room and sat down next to her. He knew the plan was to give Fury everything they knew however he also knew Natasha was going to get as much as she could out of him first.

"Why don't we start by you telling us what you know about Xander." Arms casually crossed, Natasha leaned back in her chair and turned to look at Fury.

"Xander is the capital of the Nova Empire. Home to the Nova Corp. Signed a treaty with our Kree friends a while back." He nodded his head at Natasha. "Your turn."

"They suffered a fair amount of damage when a Kree terrorist tried to destroy the planet using the Power Stone. They won but lost a lot in exchange. They supposedly still have the Power Stone. We think it would be prudent to make sure."

"Why now?" Fury looked up at Steve who was standing next to Natasha's chair.

"Odin is dead and Asgard has been destroyed. According to Strange, Odin was one of the beings that kept the universe in balance. There may be multiple threats looking for the stones." Steve watched Fury. He knew the man had been briefed about the incident at the compound. They had needed Damage Control's help to clean up and contain the remnants of the battle. "None of us want a repeat of the compound battle on a larger scale."

Peter sucked in a breath and glanced down at his watch that had vibrated. He was tired of the feeling of dread he got every time he thought about what had happened at the compound. Karen displayed a series of vitals and a GPS location on the face of his watch and he forced himself to focus on that for a moment. His dad was fine. He looked back up, eyes landing on Fury.

Fury sat back. It wasn't often he was surprised by information. He knew Thor was on Earth and he knew he had come on a ship that was currently just outside the range of being detected by anything not controlled by SHIELD. He had not known why although he had suspected it when he had learned that Thor and Tony were meeting with the Norwegian ambassador. "I can get someone to check on Xander." He tapped his fingers on a thin device on the table next to him. He hadn't pulled Tony into helping with anything related to SWORD. Tony had a way of taking over projects. SWORD currently existed outside of SHIELD. The people who knew about it were hand picked by Fury and vetted by Maria. He did not want a repeat of what had happened with SHIELD. Knowing he was to the point where he was going to have to bring the Avengers in he slid the device towards Peter. "Specs for a ship capable of getting to the Andromeda Galaxy. We're having some issues with the engines but nothing you and Tony can't figure out."

Peter picked up the device Fury had slid to him. "Why are you working on a ship with FTL engines?"

Fury smiled. "We've had plans for an FTL drive since the 80's. We just didn't have the materials we needed." He paused and looked at the three Avengers. "I've known for a very long time that we would face a cosmic threat and I've been preparing." Fury stood up. "Call me when you've fixed the engines."

Peter frowned at the device in his hands as Fury left the room.

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter stood next to his dad as he plugged in the drive Fury had given them. He watched a logo flash across the screen. "Sentient World Observation Response Department. SWORD. Fury likes his acronyms as much as you do."

Tony smirked as he looked at the read out on the screen in front of him. "FRIDAY, send a copy of this to Reed." He looked over at Peter. "The 80's? This technology didn't exist in the 80's."

Peter shrugged. "That's what he said." He flipped to the next screen and pointed at part of a schematic. "I don't think it's our technology."

Tony enlarged the section of the drawing Peter was pointing to. "That's why they can't get it to work." He sat back in his chair. They had blended alien tech with their tech before. There were problems but they could overcome them. This was different. The majority of the components were alien. It's like someone had tried to integrate Earth tech with alien tech. But it wasn't just reverse engineering. He had done plenty of that with the tech they had recovered over the years. This was completely embedding a human design with completely alien technology. The energy source feeding the engines seemed to be the issue. Tapping on a video he watched a prototype engine ignite and then blow up. He pulled up the file with the energy source information and started laughing.

Peter glanced over his dad's shoulder. "That looks familiar."

Tony glanced up at Peter. "That's because it is." He looked back at the screen and pulled up another display next to current one. "I never released the arc reactor schematics. They're still protected. I gave Fury enough information to use it for Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. but not enough to do any damage." He sat back and looked at the screen. "Reed and I know the Arc Reactors could provide the power needed, we just could never get the engines to work. They kept blowing up." He pointed to a segment on the screen. "This looks like it acts as a floodgate to keep the drives from getting too much energy. They just can't interface it with what they have."

Peter touched the screen and expanded the section. "Think you can reverse engineer it?"

"I think we can reverse engineer it."

xxxxxxxxxx

Steve stood on a catwalk overlooking a large gathering room. "They seem to be adjusting ok."

Bucky leaned forward and looked down. "Did we ever get the story on those two?"

"Miek and Korg? I think they helped with the escape from Sakaar. Both are fighters." Steve looked over the group below him. "I think they're some of the few non-civilians not in the medical wing. Thor said that the majority of their warriors had been killed before they got there. The rest of them took a lot of hits trying to get out." He leaned back and continued to walk down the walkway with Bucky. "What's the running bet on how long it's going to take Tony and Peter to get a working ship."

"End of the week. Reed's coming over later on today. My guess is we won't see them for a couple days. They'll blow a couple engines up and then have a breakthrough at 2am and demand that all of us get up to come see it." Bucky smirked as he and Steve pushed through the set of double doors that led to the secure area of the compound.

"So we should probably start putting a plan in place." Steve clapped Bucky on the back. "Want to go to space?"


	13. Options

Carol could tell there was something wrong before she entered the atmosphere. Xandar was usually so vibrant. Now it looked...dead. She had been shocked when Fury contacted her. They had spoken over the years but he had never asked for help. Even when he definitely could have used the help. She knew he knew she had spent the years helping other worlds. Worlds that had no champion. Worlds that suffered at the hands of those who were strong and took what they wanted. She was stronger. But it didn't mean she wasn't invested in what happened on her home planet. She had found out about the Chitauri invasion months after it had happened. Pissed didn't begin to cover how she felt that Fury hadn't asked her for help. When she had shown up at his house he had let her yell for a solid two minutes. Then he proceeded to tell her about his Avengers. Years in the making but they had done what needed to be done.

Now, he had reached out for help. Help in determining if there was a threat on the horizon. She had scoffed at first. Surely she would have heard of a threat on the scale he was talking about. Years ago there had been the possibility of a threat. The last remaining Titan, driven mad by the thought of extinction. But then he disappeared, and all was well in the universe. Now, Fury was asking about similar threats and their interest in obtaining the infinity stones. She had learned more about the other stones over time. You didn't exist in this universe without hearing about them. Most people believed them to be fairy tales. Other, like her, had witnessed their power first hand. They had the ability to destroy on their own, put to together their power multiplied. Put all of them together? Their power would be infinite.

She landed lightly on the surface of Xandar, near where the capital city should have been. She had visited many times over the years. She had grudgingly helped broker the peace treaty between them and the Kree years ago. She had seen the aftermath of the destruction Ronan had caused and had understood what it had cost them. Rebuilding had been slow. You didn't recover quickly after suffering that much of a loss. She had been here less than a year ago and the capitol city had looked good. Not quite back to the status of before but if you hadn't known where the blast marks had driven groves into the earth you wouldn't have noticed them. Now, the entire vista in front of her was smoldering, although you could tell it had been days if not weeks since it's destruction. It was hard to imagine anyone surviving.

Pulling a thin, handheld scanner off her belt, she flipped through the readings. She wasn't sure if it would penetrate to the subterranean levels. If anything remained, any record of what had happened, that's where she would find it.

xxxxxxxxxx

MJ looked up as the elevator doors slid open. FRIDAY had already let her know that Peter was on his way up. She waited until Peter had stepped fully out of the elevator. "So, how many engines did you blow up."

Peter vaulted over the back of the sofa and landed next to MJ. "Three. We got lucky on the fourth one. We've got weeks for testing before we can even think about testing them with a ship. Reed is running the calcs on how far we'll need them to run and dad's running the data on how fast. There was some discussion about trying to utilize the wormholes the Hulk went through but they're not mapped so we're trying to just avoid them."

MJ stretched her legs out onto Peter's lap. "And the mission? Is there a plan yet?"

Peter shook his head. "We're waiting on intel from Fury." Peter knew what the actual question was he just wasn't sure what the answer would be. Instead, he slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a watch. Reaching over, he grabbed MJ's wrist and slipped off her current watch. Fastening the new one around her wrist he focused on adjusting it. "Karen, make sure MJ's new watch is in testing mode."

"Affirmative Peter. You are free to test deployment."

Grinning at MJ he tapped a spider icon on the face of the watch. Dark navy nanites spread out from the housing on the backside of the watch. He watched as they spread across MJ until they covered her fully. "So...how does it feel?"

"Weird." MJ stood up and walked around the sofa. She looked down at her wrist and saw two web shooters. "You gave me web-shooters?" Flicking her wrist she triggered a web towards Peter, landing it where he had been sitting moments earlier. She looked up to the ceiling. "How do I get the mask down?"

Peter let go of the ceiling with his hand and walked towards MJ until he was almost over her before flipping down to the floor. "You don't. It's 100% defensive. Karen and FRIDAY will assess the threat level and disable when you're clear." He tapped her wrist and the suit melted back into its housing. "The suit will automatically trigger if it detects a threat. It also sends an SOS...to everyone. I think the NYC SWAT is even included. Which is why I put it in test mode."

MJ frowned. "Isn't that's overkill?"

"No. The suit is there to protect you. You don't have enhanced healing and you haven't spent thousand of hours training. It's there to keep you from getting hurt until help can get there. I gave you webs so you'd have a way to fight back. We can talk about repulsors after you've done some training." Peter took a step back and readied himself for the argument that he felt was probably brewing.

MJ opened her mouth to argue and shut it again when she looked at Peter's face. She hadn't noticed it before and she realized she hadn't really looked at him. She could see the underlying worry and fear etched in his face. "You're worried."

"Yes." Peter took a deep breath. "Whatever might be coming...it could be bad. The home grown bad guys we face are bad enough. This could be...worse." Worry didn't begin to describe how Peter felt. The glimpses he saw into the compound battle in the other timeline had shown him just how bad it could be. What he had felt from the other timeline had literally brought him to his knees. Nothing they had faced before even came close. All he wanted was to keep everyone safe. He could barely do that with regular threats. The idea of there being a threat from up there made him feel incredibly insignificant.

MJ stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, resting her forehead on his. "Peter..."

To avoid the impending argument, he cut her off and leaned forward to kiss her.

xxxxxxxxxx

"I thought you would have headed back to the city with Peter."

Tony looked up from the tablet at the sound of Steve's voice and saw him leaning against the door of the lab. He missed having Peter in the lab with him to give him a heads up that someone was there. Peter's head would always pop up and turn towards the door about 30 seconds before someone showed up in the lab. "I needed to run some simulations. It's easier to do here than at the tower."

Steve pulled himself away from the door and walked over to sit in the chair next to Tony. "How's Peter. He seems like he's a little..."

"Off?" Tony supplied the word for Steve and leaned back in his chair, curious where Steve wanted to take the observation.

"Not sure that's the right word for it. The fight got to him."

Tony sighed. "I think the fight got to everyone. What did you see from the other timeline?"

"A broken shield. No Nat." He paused before continuing. "The shield was weird. I've always worried about coming up against a threat that I couldn't handle. I guess the other me did. Not seeing Nat was weirder. She's been such a constant all this time. There's only one reason she wouldn't have been in that fight and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about it."

Tony frowned. He hadn't realized no one else had seen 'Other Natasha'. He wondered if it meant she hadn't survived either. If Steve's brain was already thinking that maybe it meant that he would understand. He sucked in a breath. "Apparently the other timeline me didn't make it either."

"Tony..."

"Don't mourn me yet Cap...I'm still kicking. It just hit Peter hard. He keeps saying he felt it. Morgan too, but for Peter...between his senses and...". Tony paused. "FRIDAY and Karen keep feeding my biometrics to him." He looked over at Steve. "It's going to make mission planning a little harder."

Steve shook his head. "We can manage the mission without the two of you."

"Yeah, that's just it. I don't think you can." Tony ran his hand over his face. "And the very last place I want Peter is in space right now. But there's no way anyone makes it if there's not someone to make repairs on the fly."

"Then Reed or Johnny can go. You and Peter aren't the only two that can fix things." Steve looked at Tony. He could see the evidence of lack of sleep and age. They were all too old for this but Steve also knew that Tony would do whatever it took to ensure the Earth was safe.

Tony leaned forward and pulled up a display. "I've been thinking about that. I think we're going to need at least two groups. Maybe three depending on what happens with Xandar." The display showed a woefully incomplete map of their galaxy and another spiral galaxy with a black area in between. "Like it or not this is our future. It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle and pretend we're just some primitive planet. The more we know the better prepared we'll be. Reed has already been adding to this map based on the knowledge from the Asgardians as well from their ship's navigational system." He looked over at Steve. "Reed wants to take his team to map the wormholes and this area." He pointed to the black void between the two galaxies. "He's picked up some anomaly's. We think it might be the location of one of these dimensions Loki was talking about."

"The Seventh Stone." Steve blew out a breath and looked at Tony. "Are we sure we don't want it to stay lost?"

"I don't know. I do know that I don't want it falling into someone else's hands." He spun the hologram around and looked over at Steve who had leaned back in his chair.

"Ok, so Reed and Johnny are out. There have to be other options. Options that mean that you and Peter don't have to go and you don't have to leave Morgan."

Tony stood up and paced the length of the lab before turning to look at Steve. "Keeping her safe is why I would go. But if I go it means Peter is going to want to go too." He started pacing again. "You have no idea how badly I want to keep Peter out of this but you and I both know how hard that is."

"We'll come up with something." Steve knew as the words were leaving his mouth that trying to keep Peter away from the mission was going to be almost impossible.


	14. Xandar

"Cutting it a little close aren't you?" Tony leaned over and whispered as Peter slid into a chair next to him.

"I had to pick up Bobby and Davis. It took longer than I thought." Peter glanced around the ops room. "Why is there a Skrull here."

"Apparently they're an ally. Which you would have known if you would have gotten here on time."

"Who's the blonde lady?" Peter looked over at his dad who was currently feigning a look of attentiveness that Peter knew was a complete facade.

"You'd know that too of you had been on time." Tony fought the smirk that was trying to appear on his face. "Pay attention Spiderling."

Peter rolled his eyes at the nickname but snapped his eyes forward when Fury stood up.

"Now that everyone has managed to make it in...". He paused and looked over at Peter. "...let's start with the status of Xandar."

Peter watched the blonde lady walk towards the front of the room. He assumed she had already been introduced to everyone else. He glanced over at his dad and knew with one look he wasn't going to get any help. He shifted his focus back to the woman when he heard her say Xandar was gone.

"Destroyed?" Thor leaned forward and looked at Danvers. "Were there any survivors?" The knowledge that there was another planet that would now be considered dead struck a little too close to home.

Carol shook her head. "Maybe." She frowned before continuing. "If there are they were gone before I got there." She tapped a holographic display and a video of the destruction appeared. She glanced around the room, completely aware of the fact that almost everyone in the room had never ventured outside of the atmosphere of Earth. "Xandar has a hive mind. They call it the Worldmind. It contains the memories of every fallen Nova Corp member and is the source of the Nova Force."

Peter raised his hand. "Um...what's the Nova Force."

Carol smiled at the kid asking the question. He was young but not younger than she was when she joined the Air Force. She just couldn't fathom facing the things they were getting ready to talk about at that age. "I think it's sort of the planet core. There are certain Xandarians that have the ability to tap into it and use it. The ones that can use the Nova Force made up the Nova Corp. At one point they were considered to be one of the finest militaries in the known universe. They were defensive only and it allowed Xandar to become one of the strongest worlds in their galaxy. They were decimated by Ronan but were starting to recover." She glanced over at holographic display that showed the destruction. "I don't know what could have caused this."

Steve put the tablet in his hands down. "I'm assuming you didn't find the Power Stone."

Carol shook her head. "If it was still there it would have been with the Worldmind." She tapped the hologram and a video of a subterranean area appeared. "It took me a while to make it into the subterranean areas. It was unstable enough that I couldn't just blast my way in." She looked back up at the group. "The Worldmind was destroyed and there was no sign of the Stone." She enlarged a section of the hologram and pointed to an area that showed what looked like the remains of post battle medical treatment. Most of the people in the room had experienced it before...the scattered remains of bandages and other medical supplies careless and hastily discarded because trying to save someone from dying was more important than where you threw your trash. "Somebody survived. I just don't know if they left on their own or if they were taken by whoever did all of this." She glanced back at the hologram before looking back at the group.

"So the Power Stone is missing, probably in the hands of whoever is planning to destroy the universe. There may be survivors from Xandar that are either being held captive or out for revenge. Wonderful." Tony looked over at Reed and Bruce. "Can we track the Power Stone the same way we did the Mind Stone?"

Bruce thought through what they had done years ago to find the scepter and looked over at Reed. "Maybe. We'll have to account for similar radiation emitted from everything else in space."

Reed nodded. "I can separate the wavelengths."

"Can't you use the same amplifier you used to track me?" Peter looked over at his dad. The space stuff was definitely Reed's area of expertise but they had spent a lot of time researching gamma radiation in order to fine tune the amplifier to Peter's specific signature.

Tony nodded. "We'll need to verify if the three we have share the same wavelength."

"You have three of the six stones?" Carol looked over at Fury. He hadn't shared this piece of information. "If we can track the stones it means other can too. Having them here is dangerous."

"We know." Steve looked around the table. "Getting the Space Stone secured is priority one." He looked over at Wong. "Get with Thor, Carol, and Talos and figure out our options. Start compiling information on all of the stones while you're at it." Glancing across the table he focused on Tony. "Tony, get Reed and Bruce specs on Peter's amplifier so the can start finding the Power Stone. Then finish up the FTL drives. You're ready for testing, right?"

Tony nodded. He recognized the Cap in front of him. It was the one that took charge and made sure what needed to get done got done. It didn't matter if it was possible or not.

"Alpha Team and Bravo Team stay, everyone else dismissed." Steve knew he was being abrupt but there was a lot that needed to be done and seeing he destruction on Xandar gave him a newfound sense of urgency. They knew there was trouble brewing on the horizon. Seeing Xandar's destruction so close ok the heals of the compound battle was jarring. He was determined that the same destruction wasn't coming to this Earth.

Carol started to follow. Fury hadn't given much more than an introduction to the people he wanted her to work with. She hadn't even gotten the names of the last three to arrive although she had figured out the one next to Tony was Peter. She had assumed that they plus the other two that looked about the same age were maybe trainees confined to running support from the base. She realized that those five had remained seated when just about everyone else had gotten up. She looked over at Fury. "They're Bravo team? Aren't they a little young?"

Fury chuckled. "They're Alpha Team. Those two...". He gestured to Sam and Bucky. "...are Bravo Team." Recognizing the look of shock on her face he resumed walking, urging her along. "If you finish your homework and find us a place to stash the Space Stone, Rogers may let you watch the feed of the op they're going on."

xxxxxxxxxx

Steve leaned against the table and waited for the door of the ops room to close. "As much as I wish we could focus on the problem at hand, we have some run of the mill bad guys that need to be dealt with."

"End of the world doesn't mean our day job stops." Sam sat back and crossed his arms. "And can you please stop calling us Bravo Team? It's insulting."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Sam before deciding to ignore the comment. "Hauer's been spotted again." He aimed a remote at one of the screens and pulled up a series of surveillance pictures. He looked back and the five boys sitting in front of him, all leaned forward and paying attention to the intel in front of them. "He's one of the last remaining Hydra operatives at large."

Natasha placed a tablet in front of each of them, as well as a packet containing passports and money. "Unfortunately he's in a country that doesn't really care that he's a known terrorist. The Security Council has approved the op so we're going but we can't just drop you with the Quinjet."

Peter dumped the contents of the envelope on the table in front of him. Passport, plane tickets, hotel reservation confirmation, money. His life was weird. He looked up at Natasha expectantly.

"College Students on a trip. No one expects that five 21 year olds are actually highly trained SHIELD agents." Natasha smirked at the boys. "You leave for JFK in 45 minutes." She looked over at Bucky and Sam. "You two are taking a Quinjet to a neighboring country to wait for extraction."


	15. Alpha Team

Peter looked out the window of their hotel room. Wyatt, Bobby and Davis had gone out to get take out. They were grabbing their target tonight after spending the last couple days getting his routine down. The plan was fairly simple. Sneak in, grab the guy, rendezvous with Bucky and Sam, go home. Peter preferred these missions to the ones that involved more weapons fire. He glanced over at Johnny who was stretched out on the bed, looking at maps of the two galaxies. "When do you leave?" Peter nodded at the tablet when Johnny looked up.

"Maybe as soon as next week. Reed said the first test went better than expected. They're going to send the unmanned ship to Pluto and back. If it makes it without problems it won't be long before we head out." He tossed the tablet onto the nightstand and looked over at Peter. "Our mission is a little less dramatic as the other ones. Have you heard any details yet?"

"Not much. I know we're planning on getting the Space Stone off Earth as soon as we can. Dad said they had come up with some options. I don't know the details though." Peter pulled the curtain down and crossed the room to sit in the chair opposite Johnny. "They can't seem to decide who's going."

"I thought you would have jumped at the chance to go." Johnny watched Peter's face. He had learned over the years how to figure out where Peter's head was by paying attention to the expressions on his face. They were fleeting so you had to pay close attention or you'd miss it. It hadn't taken him long to figure out that the compound battle had shaken him. He was better now that he was a couple weeks out from it but you could still see evidence of the affect it had on him every once in a while.

"Part of me does. The other part wants to stay here and make sure that everyone stays safe." Peter leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "What if whatever destroyed Xandar makes it here first. If we're all gone, who's going to protects Earth."

"Xavier and the rest of his group. You've seen them in action. You know what they can do."

Peter sighed, "I know, I just hate the idea of leaving MJ and even Pepper and Morgan on their own." He looked up at Johnny. "Dad will have to go. They'll need someone to make repairs."

"I thought the plan was for there to be two people that could fix things. Plus if Tony's going I would have thought you would want go." Johnny studied the expressions playing over Peter's face. "You two have always been close, the last couple weeks have been over the top."

"You noticed that, huh." Peter looked down, frowning. He didn't think he had been that transparent. "The compound battle. It was a bleed through from another timeline."

Johnny sat back and watched Peter. He could tell whatever had happened had been bad.

"The other Tony...the one from the other timeline...in order to stop Thanos, he took the Stones and snapped him out of existence...and it killed him." Peter's voice broke a little and the last part came out almost as a whisper.

"And you felt it." Johnny's comment came out as a statement. He had seen first hand over the years how Peter's senses worked. Peter always knew when he was about to get hurt and he had gotten to the point when he knew when a member of his team was about to get hurt. It wrecked Peter when other people got hurt so he couldn't imagine what sensing his dad's death had done to him, even if it had been in another timeline.

Peter nodded. "The first couple days I'd start to have a panic attack if he wasn't in the immediate vicinity. Now, I can handle being this far away but I've woken up in a cold sweat more than once." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "If I go, I'm leaving MJ unprotected. If I go, it'll be because I need to go. Dad can more than handle repairs on his own." Peter frowned again. The reality was having more than one person who could fix things ensured a better outcome. He just felt like that line of thinking gave him an out with his guilt over leaving MJ.

"Peter, you know everyone we know will do whatever it takes to make sure MJ is protected." Johnny understood what Peter was wrestling with. He was in a no-win situation. If he went he'd feel guilty. If he stayed and something happened he wouldn't be able to live with it.

xxxxxx

Steve glanced back when the door opened. Everyone who usually watched Alpha Team's ops was already here. Tony was seated in the same seat he sat in every time Peter was on a mission. Natasha was standing behind him watching all of the monitors. On occasion Jean or Scott would sit in but those were usually just the riskier missions. The current mission was an easy grab and extract. He wasn't overly surprised when Danvers walked in. Fury had given him a heads up that she was interested in watching their mission, Steve just hadn't gone out of his way to try to include her. He wasn't sure why, but her attitude just rubbed him the wrong way. It wasn't that he wasn't used to incredibly strong willed females. It seemed like all of the females that had ever been in his life were strong in the face of existing in a predominantly male environment. Peggy had attacked the problem through competency and charm. She had been good at her job, far better than most of her male peers. It wasn't that she didn't rub people the wrong way, she had just learned early to work the system to her advantage...just like another strong female he knew. He glanced over at Natasha and couldn't help but to smile. Nat had perfected working the system to her advantage. Danvers just seemed to have a chip on her shoulder. Plus, she obviously preferred to work alone. Add the two together and he knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. He didn't think he had the patience to work through another solo act. Tony had been bad enough.

Carol closed the door behind her and walked over to stand next to Tony. She was curious to see Fury's 'Alpha Team'. "What's their mission?"

"Extraction of a Hydra Agent. Preferably without anyone knowing they're there." Steve crossed his arms and focused on the screens.

The four watched the team make their way into the house. They had Peter's HUD transmissions on the view screens. "Why is the view upside down?" Carol tipped her head to the side while watching Peter's screen.

"He's upside down." Steve answered as if it was a perfectly logical reason. And it was to them. Peter's HUD view was almost never right side up. Steve stopped worrying about their visitor when the team breached the main house. Their target was Hydra so that meant he had security. He saw the targets populate on Peter's HUD. He unconsciously held his breath every time he stood in an ops room during a mission. Part of him missed being in the field. Another part of him wanted to retire and never stand in another ops room. The only reason he and Nat had agreed to become the SHIELD liaisons was because it gave them a way to make sure someone had the field agents' best interests at heart.

The entire group watched as the team silently worked their way through the security guards and closed in on their target. Tony didn't think they'd have a problem actually getting to the guy but it didn't mean he was any more relaxed. He wasn't sure if Peter knew he watched almost all of his missions. Peter was currently positioned above the target's bedroom door. Tony felt Danvers move slightly next to him as Bobby phased into vapor. He had to give her credit, the first time most people saw him do it they generally had more of an outward reaction. He watched Peter land a web on the door and push it open a crack to allow a line of sight for himself while Bobby made his way to the target. Solidifying an inch from the target's face he knocked him out, allowing Peter and Johnny to enter a completely secure room. Webbed up and sedated for the trip, Bobby hefted him over his shoulder and the group made to the balcony door. Having gotten the all clear, a black SUV had pulled onto the drive near the window. Within moments Peter had flipped to the ground followed closely by Bobby and their target. Davis had exited the SUV and opened the back revealing a secreted compartment that was just large enough for their target. Johnny was hovering slightly higher watching for signs of movement. Target secured, the four boys joined Wyatt in the SUV and pulled away from the house.

Carol watched the feed switch off although she saw several a map showing their progress, represented by five moving dots. Another map showed two dots which she assumed was the extraction team waiting on the other side of the border. "They almost make it unfair to the bad guys. Being able to phase into vapor is impressive."

Natasha nodded without taking her eyes off of the monitors. "They're pretty impressive. All five graduated from MIT, three of them have masters degrees, Peter has two and Davis is working on his second one. All of them ended up enhanced and instead of using against people or just doing tricks at parties they opted to help people." She looked over at Carol with a pointed glance. "They do whatever it takes to make sure Earth is protected."

xxxxxxxxxx

"You five are way more chatty than normal. What's up?" Sam looked suspiciously at the group of boys who had settled in various positions in the back of the Quinjet and were all talking a mile a minute.

"Well, Jen broke up with Wyatt...again; Davis has to finish his thesis and can't find a quiet place to work at the Mansion; Bobby's dad showed up last week out of the blue; I'm going to space next week which is cool and all but I have no social life to speak of; and Peter's in a no-win situation when it comes to the mission." Johnny looked over at Sam. "We've got a lot of stuff going on right now."

Sam shook his head. "Ok, for starters, Davis, just come work out of the tower until you're done. It's got labs. Bucky and I are usually the only two there unless Peter and MJ are there and there on a completely different floor." He turned and looked at Bobby. "Your dad is your dad and not all dad's are great guys but he's the only true dad you have. Don't push him away but don't let him run all over you or make you feel bad about anything either. If you need a wingman let me know." Reaching up he grabbed a water bottle out of a cabinet. "Wyatt, you've broken up with Jen three times this year so far...I don't even know what to do with that." He looked down at Peter and Johnny, "I've got nothing for you two."

Peter smirked up at Sam. "That wasn't overly helpful."

Bobby shrugged. "No, it was good. He's right about my dad. I don't get why the mission with the Stone is a no win for you."

Peter looked down at his knees. "Bobby, just leave it alone."

"But..."

"Hey, Peter, come up here and look at this for a minute. The radar seems like it's acting up." Bucky's voice called back from the cockpit.

Peter rose and walked into the cockpit, sliding into the co-pilot's seat. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just know you didn't want to talk about whatever with everyone."

Peter smiled and settled into the seat. After a few moments he looked over at Bucky. "Are you on the mission?"

Bucky knew which mission he was talking about. The mission that has been on everyone's minds. He glanced over at Peter and shrugged. "Steve asked if I wanted to go."

"I would have thought you would have jumped at the chance. You always geek out over all the tech stuff. Every time we go to Wakanda you get this look of amazement and wonder." Peter twisted in his seat to look fully at Bucky.

Bucky smiled. "I do like all of the tech stuff. Did I ever tell you about the Stark Expo I went to?"

Peter shook his head. "Did yours have killer robots? Because the one I went to had killer robots."

"I feel like there's a story there...no, there weren't killer robots. There was a hover car...in 1937. I remember being so amazed, even though it didn't stay in the air long, it was a sight to see." He looked over at Peter. "I'm 106. I'm not sure I have the energy to go to space."

Peter laughed. "Yeah, you don't look a day over 50."

"You are such a punk." Bucky hit a button on the control panel letting FRIDAY take over flight controls. "Look kid, I know what you're struggling with. If you leave, you can't protect everyone here. If you stay, you can't protect your dad and if they can't stop whatever's coming you'll always wonder if your being there would have made a difference." He looked over at Peter. He hated that the kid took all of this on but for as long as Bucky had known him he'd been like this. Peter reminded him a lot of Steve. "I can't make this decision for you. But I will tell you this...if you decide to go I will make sure MJ, Pepper, and Morgan are safe. That means I become MJ's bodyguard whether she likes it or not. And, if something comes I'll get them all to Wakanda. They'll have the best chance there."


	16. The Mission

Wong looked over at Loki. He had been pleasantly surprised that the man was not only intelligent but also had a gift for languages. Simply by spending a day with Loki and his brother, Wong had made more progress in translating the more obscure tomes than he had in his entire time as student of the mystic arts. He looked back at the group assembled in front of him. He definitely preferred his library. "We have discovered more about the stones over the last couple weeks than we had over the last several decades. All of that information has been uploaded." He cringed as he said the word 'upload'. He understood that not everyone could carry around a library worth of books and that it was the best way to disseminate the information but he still didn't like it. "More importantly we've found reference to the stones' guardians." He took a breath and glanced at the screen. Natasha had put up a picture of the Eye of Agamotto. "We had always assumed that these marking were decorative...they're not. Loki was able to provide the translation. It's an incredibly obscure language and probably hasn't been spoken in a millennia."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense Wong." Tony studied the markings on the artifact. He knew it housed the Time Stone. He could understand why they had been assumed to be decorative but there was a definite pattern to them.

"The Eye gives a history of it's owner. We had always assumed Agamotto was human. He wasn't." Wong glanced over at Strange. That revelation had been a little disturbing. They had not informed the other Sanctums of their discovery, at least not yet.

"If he's not human, what was he?" Steve looked at the librarian expectantly. They had realized a long time ago that alien races had been interfering on Earth for way longer than anyone was comfortable with.

"He was an Elder of the Universe. Originally there were only six, as old as the Universe itself. Their purpose was solely to protect the stones. Over time that purpose became forgotten. Agamotto came to Earth to escape the bickering between the Elders." Thor sat back after giving his explanation. He was familiar with Elders, but hadn't been aware that their original purpose was to act as guardian to the stones, and he hadn't known there were only six originally. "Elders are known throughout the universe. There are actually quite a few of them. However, based on this new information, I don't believe everyone that claims to be an Elder is actually an Elder."

Peter frowned at the statement. "So there are people who just decided one day to be an 'Elder'?"

Thor smiled. "There are being that are thousands of years old. The ones I speak of are millions if not billions of years old. Who is going to argue against their claim."

Peter couldn't wrap his head around being billions of years old. "Where did Agamotto go? If you're a billion years old you can't be easy to kill."

Strange looked over at Peter. "We don't know. He just disappears from the records. With the knowledge that he was an Elder that may mean that he is simply in a different dimension. Or, he was killed by a stronger force."

A stronger force was not what anyone wanted to hear. Steve leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "Let's ignore the fact that there may be something stronger than an Elder for a moment. Why did they stop guarding the stones?"

"I believe they found themselves bored with the prospect and found other diversions." Loki hadn't contributed much to the conversation yet. "However, we believe they can be coerced into resuming their role as guardian."

Tony scrubbed a hand across his face. So far they were ignoring that there was potentially something stronger than the original guardians of the stones as well as banking on being able to convince a bunch of virtually immortal beings to do their damn job. "Ok, do we at least know who they are?"

"We have names for the original six, although for most of them we don't know where they are." Loki looked over at Thor before continuing. "Besides Agamotto there is Tryco Slatteeus, Gilpetperdon, En Dwi Gast, Ord Zyonz, and Taneleer Tivan."

Thor leaned forward. "We know Taneleer Tivan by another name...the Collector."

Natasha frowned, "Isn't that who has the Reality Stone already? The one Odin instructed Sif to take it to so there wouldn't be two infinity stones on Asgard?" She had sat in on some of the conversations about the stones over the last week and had heard additional details that the rest of them had not.

"Apparently Odin knew more than we did and he didn't think it was important to let us know." Thor knew there was some bite in his statement. Odin has held a lot close to his chest. It was time for the old ways to end.

Steve sat back and looked at the group. "Do we think this Collector knows where the other Elders are?"

Thor glanced over at Loki. "There's only one way to find out."

"Ok, so Field Trip to visit the Collector." Tony looked at Danvers, who was standing by the wall. "Danvers, have you found out anything else about the location of the Power Stone or have you located the possible Xandar survivors?" He knew she had been out several times scouting areas for both.

"I've heard some rumblings about a survivor from Xandar. Singular. I haven't located anyone yet. Nothing at all about the Power Stone. I can't figure out if people are scared or if the Stone has simply vanished." Either way she didn't think it was good. "Finding the survivor should be top priority. I can move faster on my own."

Steve knew that was coming. Danvers was used to being on her own and intended to stay on her own. "We'll set up regular check ins so we can all get a status update." He still wasn't sure how that was going to work. He looked over at Tony and Reed. "We will be able to get status updates, right?"

Tony turned his head to look at Reed. "Reed, tell them your plan."

Reed glared at Tony. It wasn't necessarily his plan...it was just their only option. "I think most of you are aware that I'm taking my team - including Johnny and Wyatt - to explore the area between the two galaxies. We'll drop relay boosters on they way. It should allow us to communicate at least a little."

"So that means we have functional ships capable of making these trips?" Sam looked skeptically at Reed and Tony.

Tony nodded. "Test flight to Pluto and back went off without a problem. Reed leaves with his team in two days."

"As soon as we set the first rendezvous point, I'll head out to keep looking for my survivor."

Steve nodded to Carol. "So that leaves the second team. Who's on it?"

"I feel that Loki and I should both go. None of you have ventured past Earth. I haven't spent as much time outside of the Nine Realms, but Asgard is known and respected across the universe." He glanced over at Loki, "And, while I have a certain proficiency with different language and cultures, Loki is better. Brunnhilde can handle the transition of New Asgard."

Steve looked around the rest of the table. "Ok, Thor and Loki. We don't need to decide the rest of the team tonight so sleep on it."

"Tony...". Wanda cut Tony off as he was leaving the room. "You told me to let you know if I saw anything that would help."

Tony turned around to look at Wanda. "Any chance you know what we're up against?"

"No." She glanced over at Peter who was talking to his team. "I think you and Peter both need to go."

Tony frowned. "I was planning on convincing him to stay." He pulled her out of the room with him. "Why does Peter need to go?"

Wanda hesitated for a moment. "I don't know if it's because there are so many stones in one area but they're... I'm not sure if talking is the right word but...they're showing me things...you and Peter need to stay together."

Tony sucked in his breath, "And if we don't?"

Wanda swallowed before answering him. "None of us survive."

The statement took Tony by surprise. "What do you mean none of us survive."

"Tony, every thing I've seen, when you two are together there's not death and destruction. It's the one constant. I don't know why. And the stones have been insistent. The Mind Stone has shown Vis too." Wanda crossed her arms and looked at Tony.

"And you believe what you're seeing?" When they had studied the Mind Stone it had seemed almost sentient. In talking to Selvig about the Space Stone, he had actually called it a 'she'. He needed to remember to ask Strange what he thought.

Wanda shrugged. "If it were just me I'd be wary, but it's Vis too."

Tony set his jaw. "Ok. Thanks Wanda. I'm assuming you're staying here." He thought it was a given. One of the reasons they were going was to keep the stones apart which meant Vision was definitely not going.

Wanda smiled. "I'm staying here. We'll keep Earth safe while you're gone."

Tony forced a smile. The reality was he was deep in thought. He knew Peter was on the fence about going. Peter felt like he was abandoning MJ if he went. Tony knew because he was having a similar dilemma. He didn't trust anyone else to work on the ship, but if he went he'd be leaving Pepper and Morgan alone. He was going because he thought it was the best chance he had at keeping them protected. He hated himself for it and he was pretty sure a tiny part of Pepper hated him too. He just hoped Morgan would forgive him. He saw Peter leave the room with his team, all going separate directions. A moment later he and Peter were alone in the hallway. Before he could say anything Peter cut him off.

"I'm going. I heard what she said even though you tried to get her far enough away. I was leaning in that direction anyway but that just cemented it." Peter stood in front of his dad and crossed his arms.

Tony studied the determined look on Peter's face. "Ok." He didn't like it but at least he'd be there with him. Maybe they could pull this off and not die trying.

xxxxxxxxxx

Tony found Rhodey in one of the conference rooms. It looked like he was reviewing resources. "Trying to figure out who can fill my shoes while I'm off planet?"

"Something like that." Rhodey looked up at his friend. "I'm hoping you can stop whatever it is before it gets here but in case you can't..."

"Yeah, about that. FRIDAY, introduce GRACE to Rhodey."

"Colonel Rhodes, GRACE stands for Global Reconnaissance And Critical Engagement" FRIDAY had also pulled up a series of schematics for satellites.

A different female voice followed FRIDAY's. "Hello Colonel Rhodes."

Tony sat down next to Rhodey. "GRACE, I'm transferring control to Colonel Rhodes."

"Affirmative."

"There's a series of satellites orbiting Earth. They may or may not be currently disguised as global positioning satellites currently. They've been scanning deep space for a while now. They also have the ability to deploy defensive drones."

Rhodey looked over at Tony. "Seriously?" All Rhodey could think about was Project Insight. "You don't learn from mistakes do you?"

"Insight is why no one else has had access or even knows about this. The drones are there to combat forces from out there however we've both seen wormholes drop ships into the atmosphere, so yes, they can shoot towards Earth too." Tony sat back and looked at his friend. "I have to have a way to protect Earth. This is it. If something big shows up you're going to need the extra fire power. You and everyone left on Earth can't combat a ship the size we saw through the tears or the ship I knocked out with the nuke."

"Why give it to me?"

"You're the only one staying that I trust with this technology." Tony left off the fact that if Peter had planned on staying he would have given Peter control. "Oh, and Fury has something cloaked in orbit. It's a decent size but I can't get through the cloaking."

Rhodey sighed, "Of course he does. Why wouldn't he have a secret orbital platform."

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter glanced over at MJ and soaked in the serene look on her face as she slept. He was trying not to wake her but the reality was he had been awake for hours. When he had first told her he had made the decision to go on the mission, despite the calm facade, he knew she had been disappointed. She hadn't been angry. She had told him a long time ago that she knew what she was signing up for. But, he knew how much she hated it when he went on long missions and this one was definitely long. They had no idea how long they'd be gone. There was a cover story in place so hopefully the world wouldn't know that he and his dad were both off planet. He looked down at the foot of the bed at the sleeping form of the newest member of their family. The dog had been a rescue from the pound and was quite possibly the sweetest thing in the world. They had talked over the years about getting one but had always worried about not being able to get it outside enough living in the city and having the schedules they had. MJ had told him that if he was going to be gone for longer than normal she wanted something to come home to and she wanted the dog to actually know Peter before he left. So, they adopted one. One that apparently now slept in their bed. Peter knew it was his own fault. The dog had cried when they had tried putting him in the kennel the first night. It hadn't been two minutes before Peter had retrieved him and deposited him at the foot of their bed.

He looked over at the clock and knew it was almost time. The deal had been MJ was going to get up and go running in the park with the dog...and Sam. Peter was heading to the compound after she had left. They had said their goodbyes last night because MJ didn't want to start the day off by telling Peter goodbye. He agreed even though he knew it was just her way of fooling herself into believing he wasn't going to be gone as long as he was. He had been pleasantly surprised that she had taken the news that Bucky and Sam were now living on the floor below them. It had always been the "Avenger" floor but Bucky had moved in permanently, or at least until Peter returned. Sam had come with him although Sam wasn't a permanent fixture. Sam was there to ensure Bucky didn't have problems with MJ at first, and to give MJ a sympathetic ear. Bucky was off active duty assignments until Peter returned. Sam was still active but since Natasha and Steve were both accompanying Peter, Tony, Thor, and Loki, he was filling their shoes with SHIELD.

The alarm went off and Peter closed his eyes, focusing on the sounds MJ made as she got out of bed and got dressed. He focused on her even breaths, the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing, sounds of her brushing her teeth and pulling her hair up into a messy bun so it would be out of her face. He frowned slightly as he listened to her heartbeat and his breath caught in his throat almost forcing him to open his eyes. It was a sound he had heard before. But the die was cast. He had no choice but to go on the mission. Wanda had said as much. He was going to ensure his family was safe. He felt the dog move off of the bed and follow MJ out of the room. He heard their bedroom door close and his eyes opened.

xxxxxxxxxx

Comes the Destoryer...


End file.
